


Codename: Basilisk

by Pearl09



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: And Tony Forgave Bucky Too I Guess, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, As Well As The Other Winter Soldiers, Avengers Tower, But It's Bucky So It's Not Really An Addiction, But They Still Live In Avengers Tower, Caffeine Addiction, Canon-Typical Violence, Cause Bucky Has The Mouth Of A Sailor, Cause I'm Still Here In 2012, Cause Zemo Is Mentioned, Content Warnings When Needed, Don't Read If You're Hungry, F/M, HYDRA sucks, He Just Needs A Lot To Wake Up In The Morning, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Minor Violence, Not Canon Compliant, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Pineapple Pizza Is Gross, Plot Is In Some Gray Area After Civil War, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-08-01 03:55:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16277339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearl09/pseuds/Pearl09
Summary: At this point, the Avengers know that Hydra made more Winter Soldiers. What they didn't know is that Bucky isn't the only one still alive. Who is this new person and what kind of history do her and Bucky have?





	1. Day Zero

**Author's Note:**

> This might just end up being one big mess, but I hope you enjoy!

The Avengers break the doors down to the old Hydra compound only to find that it has not been completely abandoned. There were a few soldiers still around the area, so they split up, quickly dismantling the Hydra agents in the building. 

Steve throws his shield down the hall at some of the agents and then turns around to say, “Go, Bucky, look for the files.”

Bucky splits from the group and goes from room to room, searching for a storage room. He kills a few stray Hydra agents along the way until he finally finds one. There’s some chattering in the comms, but he ignores it. 

He enters the storage room to find it littered with dust and cobwebs, along with broken lights. He pulls a flashlight off of his belt and turns it on, reading the label on each box as he searches the room. The light lands on a box of files, and he can’t stop the sharp inhale from escaping his mouth.

“Bucky, is everything alright?” Steve asks over the comms.

“I found it.”

Stark interrupts to say, “Good, because I’m tired of raiding all these bases to find those files. Oh God, what is that smell?”

Bucky puts the flashlight away and pulls the box in question off of the shelf. He leaves the room as Steve asks, “Where are you, Tony?”

“I found a secret entrance down the hall. Shouldn’t be hard to miss, I had to blow the door open to get here. Shrapnel everywhere. There’s a ton of dead bodies in here.”

Natasha speaks out over the comms, “There’s some strange looking metal over here.”

Bucky does his best to locate the rest of the team without knowing the layout of the building, so it takes him a few minutes.

Steve finds Natasha and looks at the metal. “It kind of looks like – “ He pauses. “Bucky, can you come here?”

Bucky turns down a hall and sees them in the distance, facing the other way. He purposefully makes a little more noise than necessary to make sure Steve knows he is there. Steve and Natasha move apart, leaving a hole in between them for Bucky to fit. When he reaches them, he looks down at what they were looking at. 

Steve and Natasha glance at Bucky, then back at the ground a few times. “It looks like an elbow,” Bucky says as his eyes grow wide.

“A metal elbow? What, did you lose another arm while you were here?” Clint calls through the comms since he’s keeping watch outside.

Bucky ignores him and says, “Stark, how were those bodies killed.”

He comes into the hallway they are in. “I had Jarvis run scans on a bunch of them. All shot right in the middle of the forehead, all dead for at least a decade, maybe two. Sounds like The Winter Soldier to me.”

Bucky shakes his head and whispers, “Basilisk.” Only Steve and Natasha hear him, the former not knowing what it means.

Bucky shoves the box into Steve’s hands and quickly enters the splintering hole in the wall. His nose curls at the smell, but he can bear it if he can find what he thinks is here. The others follow behind him, being careful not to tread on the dead bodies.

Bucky walks down hallway after hallway, passing body after body, all killed the same way. A single bullet to the head. There’s a path of them, and it stops abruptly in the middle of one of the hallways. He stops there to look around, and the others catch up to him.

“What are you looking for?” Steve asks, clearly concerned for his friend.

Bucky doesn’t answer, instead punching through the wall, breaking through the hidden door.

“A secret entrance inside of a secret entrance. This is getting insane.”

Bucky rips the wall open wide enough to fit a person and climbs inside the dark room. Everyone else climbs in and starts to look for a light switch so they can see. Natasha is the one that finds it, and when she flips it on, everyone starts looking around the room to see what’s there. All except for Bucky. He already found what he was looking for.

A dead body lays in front of a cylindrical tank with a window on the top. Bucky makes his way over to it and whispers, “B?”

He looks in the tank and can see her, frozen in place.

“Alright, who wants to explain what’s going on?”

Natasha answers. “The Winter Soldier wasn’t the only assassin Hydra made. There were the others you three found when you went after Zemo, yes, but that wasn’t all of them. There were rumors of another assassin, codename Basilisk. It was said if you were close enough to look her in the eyes, you were dead. Hydra used her for the – less discrete killings. She killed hoards of people, all at the same time. Multiple massacres, all enemies of Hydra. She was feared as much as The Winter Soldier, if not more, because she wasn’t a ghost story.”

Bucky puts his hand on the tank. “They were punishing her.” Everyone watches as Bucky stares at the tank, as if looking at a long lost friend. “She was just trying to help.”

Steve speaks up. “What do you want us to do, Buck?”

He turns his head and looks at Steve. “We need to help her.” He pauses and then adds, “Please?”

“We can talk more about this later. For now, let’s get out of here.” Tony presses a button on the display panel in front of the tank, and it starts to open. It reveals a woman with bright red hair in blood-stained clothes, with a metal right shoulder and the rest of that arm missing. Bucky carefully picks her up out of the tank and carries her out of the base with them.

Everyone is quiet on the quinjet on the way back, hoping they can get back to the tower before this new person wakes up, since they don’t know what kind of mental state she’s in. Bucky won’t stop staring at her. 

After a few minutes, he locks eyes with Tony and says, “Do you – Could you make her a new arm?”

Tony nods. “Hold her other arm out for me, let me scan it.”

Bucky does as he is told, so Tony comes over and pulls a small device out of his pocket, and a red light travels back and forth across her arm before disappearing.

“Jarvis?”

“I can have it made in four hours, sir.”

Everyone looks questioningly at Tony, so he explains, “I already designed one for Robocop in case his current one decides to fail. So Jarvis can just edit the design to match her arm and then make it. Go ahead Jarvis.”

It’s silent for a few more seconds before Bucky speaks up again, as if remembering something. “You have to make sure it’s electricity proof and extreme temperature resistant.”

“I designed yours that way, don’t worry. She’ll be fine. Though, it will probably hurt trying to replace it.”

Bucky nods as Tony goes to sit back down. Steve watches his friend to make sure he is okay, since he is acting a little unusual.

“Я думал, это просто слухи,” says Natasha.

Bucky shakes his head. “Это реально.”

“Sir, Dr. Banner is moving a medical bed into your lab for you to set her on. It will be ready to use when you arrive.”

“Thanks, Jarvis. Tell him to stick around, we might need him.”

The rest of the ride is quiet, and they manage to make it into Tony’s lab before anything happens.

Bucky, Steve, and Tony sit around in the lab with the woman on the bed. Everyone else goes to the common room, except for Dr. Banner, who went to take a quick nap so he could help Tony with attaching her arm once she wakes up.

Bucky sits by the side of the bed and looks through the box they pulled from the base as Steve watches him from the other side of the room. Tony stands at one of his lab tables, working on something. Tony picks up his phone and quickly types something. Steve’s phone vibrates, so he pulls it out.

_So, what’s up with robocop here?_

Steve looks up at Tony and makes eye contact, and then shrugs. Then he types, _Never seen him this way. She must be important. He didn’t seem to care that the others were murdered by Zemo, but even those files he was after, I think they were about her._

_Well, I guess we’ll find out soon._

“Jarvis, how long do you think it will be before she wakes?”

“If my calculations are correct, around fifteen minutes, sir. And the arm should be finished in twenty.”

“Will you wake Banner when she wakes up then?”

“Of course, sir.”

Bucky continues to read through the files, trying to learn everything he can before she wakes up.

Her arousal is very sudden as she jolts up to a sitting position on the bed. Her bright blue eyes roam the room frantically, trying to scan her surroundings. 

Bucky leaps out of his chair next to her and moves into her line of sight, holding his hands in front of him as he says, “Hey there, my name is Bucky. No one here is going to hurt you. We’re here to help you, okay? Your name is Brooklyn. Brooklyn Lowell. Hydra has used you as a weapon. They will no longer. I promise.” 

Brooklyn’s eyes focus on his arm and watch as he moves it to talk. He seems familiar to her, but she can’t place it. Bucky realizes she hadn’t focused on him talking, so he repeats his words again, keeping an even, calm tone.

She nods slowly, and Bucky seems to be content. She then rests her head back against the partially raised bed and her eyes move around the room more slowly, trying to take it all in. Bucky moves his chair so that she can see him when he sits down.

“Do you remember anything?”

She stops looking around to think, her brows furrowed in concentration, and then in a gravely, clearly unused voice, says, “I remember – was out of Cryo for too long. Shooting. Killing.”

Bucky’s eyes soften in understanding. “You won’t have to kill anymore. Everyone in this building is here to help.”

It’s quiet for a few minutes as Brooklyn struggles against her protocols. She isn’t supposed to speak unless asked to. She has a ton of questions but doesn’t want to get hurt by her new handler, Bucky. Something about him seems – different, though. Any other handler she’s had, and she’d get hit for speaking out of turn. But, maybe, with this one, she can get away with asking something.

“Water?” She croaks, and Steve stands up on the other side of the room. Brooklyn’s heart starts to race, thinking she made a mistake and is going to get hurt. Steve disappears for a few seconds and then comes back with a cup of water in his hands. He hands it to her, and she takes it with a grateful look in her eyes. 

Steve and Bucky exchange a glance, speaking without words. Then Tony moves on over to look at her.

“Well, nice to see you’re awake now. I’m Tony. While you were busy sleeping beauty, we made a new arm for you. It might hurt, seeing as it has to connect to your nerves. But it’ll be over in a flash, okay?” He starts to lower the bed to make it flat.

Brooklyn nods, and, figuring she wasn’t hurt for the last question, risks it and says, “Is this for fighting?”

Bucky immediately shakes his head. “No, B, it’s just so you can have an arm again. No one is going to make you do anything you don’t want to.”

Bruce pulls in a cart with the new arm resting on it as Tony starts to pull what’s left of her old one off. Brooklyn winces a little, and Bucky’s hand darts to her real arm, holding it to anchor her. Bruce helps Tony by holding the arm in place on the bed as Tony starts to attach it. Brooklyn’s face wrinkles in concentration, trying not to move from the pain, but since it is connecting to her nerves, she can’t help it and spasms a little. Bucky stands and puts his hands on her shoulders, gently holding her down, and keeping her still. 

She focuses on breathing, and before she can do anything else, everyone is moving away. She can feel the arm again and she looks down at it, slowly moving it. 

“Can you make a fist for me?” Tony asks, and she does a few times, clenching and unclenching it. “Good. That should do the trick. One last thing and then you can get out of here. See this chair?” He points to it.

She nods.

“We need you to sit in it. Just need to do a scan, nothing’s going to hurt you.”

Brooklyn looks to Bucky and he nods, so she stands and walks over to the chair. She sits down and Tony presses a button. The machine starts to move and encircles her head to get a brain scan. It puts a small amount of pressure on her head, and she gets worried. Everything seemed to be going okay, why would they wipe her? Bucky sees this and puts his hand on her arm, gently squeezing it to give her something to focus on. Soon, the machine is done, and Bucky pulls her out of the chair. 

Tony speaks to Bucky in a hushed voice. “It’ll take some time for these to be looked over. I’ll let you or Steve know if anything’s problematic.”

Bucky nods and then turns to Brooklyn as Steve walks over. “This is Steve. We’re going to get you a shower, okay?” Her eyes grow wide and she gets defensive, the gears in her arm whirring. Bucky immediately goes, “No, no, not the hoses. We’ll make it a nice, warm shower, and you can get cleaned up. And then we will get you some food.”

Bucky leads her to the elevator, and Steve follows. It opens up to their floor, where Steve beelines for the kitchen to start cooking. Bucky leads Brooklyn to the bathroom and starts to point out different things, knowing Hydra would have erased any concept of personal care from his own experience.

“This is body wash, use it to wash off your body. This is shampoo, it goes in your hair. This one also goes in your hair, after you use the shampoo. There’s a towel here so you can dry off when you get out, I’ll find some clothes.” He turns the shower on and sets it at a warm temperature and then leaves the room.

Brooklyn steps in and takes her time in the shower, watching the grime and blood wash down the drain.

In the bedroom connected to the bathroom, Bucky looks through the drawers to find something for her to wear.

“Excuse me, Sergeant Barnes, but Ms. Romanoff has ordered some clothes for Ms. Lowell that should be in tomorrow. In the meantime, if you provide her with a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, they should work.”

“Thanks, Jarvis.” He pulls out the recommended clothes and goes to join Steve in the kitchen. 

Steve is busy making a pot of soup big enough for three supersized diets. He turns to look at Bucky as he sits. “Was it safe to assume they pumped her full of some super–soldier steroids too?”

Bucky nods. “She was one of the last test subjects when they were trying to make it. Last one before me, if I remember those files correctly, so it was probably pretty much perfected by then.”

“Anything else I should know?”

Bucky nods but doesn’t say anything. 

“You want to wait for her to say it.”

Bucky nods again. 

“Okay, I understand.” He pauses. “Is it something she would remember?”

Bucky doesn’t answer for so long that Steve turns back to the soup and almost doesn’t hear him say, “One of them,” really quietly.

Steve decides to change the subject and says, “So, hoses?”

Bucky nods slowly. “Really cold. High pressure. Used when we first get out of Cryo to wake us up. Only form of personal hygiene we had.”

Steve nods, noticing how Bucky is slipping back into short sentences. He decides not to push any further, so they sit in silence.

The soup is almost done when Jarvis says, “Excuse me, but it seems that Ms. Lowell is finished getting dressed and doesn’t know what to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“She dressed herself about ten minutes ago and still hasn’t moved.”

“Shit.” Bucky stands and goes back to the bedroom as Steve pulls out three bowls and sets them around the table.

Brooklyn’s not stupid, like some of her first handlers would say. She listens more carefully now. She doesn’t like to get hurt. Bucky specifically told her to shower and get dressed. Now that she’s finished, she stays there waiting for more instructions, or she risks getting hurt.

The door opens and Bucky comes in, his expression half sad and half mad. Brooklyn turns to face him, hair dripping on the carpet, hoping this doesn’t mean she did something wrong.

“Hey, B. If you want, there’s some food to eat out here. You should eat. You probably haven’t eaten actual food in years.”

She follows him out of the bedroom and he sits her at the table, with a bowl of food already in front of her. Normally when the handlers do this, they are testing her. They don’t want her to eat the food, they are just tempting her. But Bucky thinks she should…

She risks it again and hesitantly picks the spoon up, and nothing bad has happened so far. She sticks it in the soup and swirls it around a few times before taking a spoonful out. Slowly, she brings it to her mouth. Once she eats it, nothing happens. She quickly eats the rest of the bowl after knowing she isn’t doing anything wrong and even gets rewarded with another bowl.

When she is done eating, she sets the spoon next to the bowl and stays seated, awaiting further instructions. Steve and Bucky move around the kitchen, cleaning up and putting leftovers away. 

Bucky finally turns to her. “You must be tired, huh? I think you should get some sleep.”

Brooklyn gets up and follows him back to the bedroom, where he leaves her. Sleep is not something she’s been allowed for a while, other than the cryo tank, so she is unsure what to do. She sits on the edge of it and spreads out on top, hoping she’s doing it right.

Bucky heads back to the kitchen and sighs. Steve is still there, pulling ingredients out to make breakfast in the morning. 

“Did you get her to sleep?”

Bucky shrugs. “I told her to sleep, so hopefully.” He runs his hand down his face. “Wish I could do the same for myself.”

“Don’t think you’re getting much sleep tonight?”

“Not at all. I –” he cuts off, not sure what he wants to say. “I’m just glad we found her, safe.”

Steve nods and decides this is the time to ask. “Those files we were looking for… Were they on her?”

Bucky nods. “I wanted to find them to see if she was alive or not. And if she was, maybe where we could find her. I didn’t expect to find both her and the files in the same building.”

Steve pushes further. “Why did you want to save her? You didn’t seem upset over the ones Zemo killed, but she seems … important.”

“I owe her.”

Steve decides he’s done pushing and sighs. “Well, if you’re staying up, I am too. And don’t you fucking protest, I know you’re just going to read those files over and no one should be alone when they have to read them. Take it from someone who has been in the same position. You sit on one side of the couch and read them, I’ll stay on the other end and draw. Keep you company.”

Bucky rolls his eyes but knows there’s no stopping Steve from doing – anything, really. So he pulls the box into the living room and settles into the couch, ready to read about all the horrors Hydra forced her to do so he will hopefully be able to help when she has nightmares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any Russian is wrong, I'm using Yandex translate, so let me know!


	2. Day One

Brooklyn wakes up in the morning feeling – better, but worse at the same time. She decides that Bucky is not like any other handler and seems to be okay if she does normal people things, so she gets up and leaves the room on her own, walking to the kitchen. 

Steve and Bucky are already there, with breakfast almost ready. Bucky turns to her with a smile. “Hey B! Hope you had a good night’s rest. You’re going to need a lot of sleep to flush everything out of your system properly.”

“So sleep other than cyro will be – normal?” she asks hesitantly.

His smile falls a bit, but he says, “There will be no more cyro. Don’t worry. So yes, sleep will become a normal thing for you.”

She sits down at the counter where she did yesterday just as Steve places food down in front of her. She looks up at him and he smiles. “Eat up.”

She eats through the entire plate and finishes at the same time that Steve and Bucky do. Steve stands and takes everyone’s plates. 

“Thank you,” she mumbles under her breath. He looks caught off guard for a second, but then nods and continues to clean up.

Bucky walks over to the door and picks up a box, carrying it over to her. “Hey, B, this is for you. We’ve got brand new clothes for you.”

He pulls the box open and she peers inside, looking down at all the different fabrics.

“Let’s move it to your room, we can sort through it and put it away there.”

She nods and follows him back to her room, where they go through the box, sorting the clothes and putting them away. In the bottom of the box, Brooklyn finds a much smaller box. She pulls it out and looks at it.

“Oh, that must be a phone. Of course Stark would have made you one. Do you know how to work a phone?”

She pulls the box open and nods, flipping the phone over in her hands to find the power button. 

Bucky leads her back to the living room and she brings the phone, surprised that she can use her metal hand on it too. Bucky sits on the couch, so Brooklyn sits in the seat next to him, waiting.

Steve leaves the floor, giving Bucky some time alone to talk to Brooklyn. Bucky was determined to kick her programming out as fast as he could.

“So, anything you like to do?”

She shakes her head no.

“Okay, I guess – I’ll put the TV on then.” He leans over to the side table and picks the remote off of the table, turning it on and letting whatever was playing last run. It turns out to be the cooking channel.

“Any foods you like?” Bucky asks, just trying to get Brooklyn to actually answer something. 

She shrugs her shoulders. She is still sitting up straight, not even touching the back of the couch.

Bucky sighs and pulls his phone out, feeling it vibrate from a new notification. “Looks like Tony gave us all your number already. So do you have people on there that you don’t know?”

Brooklyn takes her phone out to look and then nods.

“Yeah, he usually gives a phone preloaded with everyone’s contacts. Only the people in the tower though, he would never give your phone number out to anyone else.”

She looks at the phone for a few more seconds and then puts it away.

Bucky stares at her for a few minutes before remembering his goal. “You know, you don’t have to follow orders anymore.”

She turns to look at him, her face filling with confusion. “Why not?”

“Because you’re safe here, B. You won’t be used as a weapon. You can be your own person here.” He looks her in the eyes. “Trust me. I know. I – They did the same thing to me. I had to follow orders. Steve finally broke that – mindset Hydra put me in, and they helped me pull through. Be mostly myself again. We can do the same for you.”

Brooklyn stares into his blue eyes and feels a pang of familiarity. Her eyebrows furrow. “Bucky?” she asks.

“Yeah, B?”

“Have we – met before?”

Bucky turns to look away, not wanting her to see his reaction. “Yes. We have.”

Brooklyn pauses, but then continues. “Were we – close?”

Bucky hesitates. “We – I would like to think so, yes.”

Brooklyn leans back against the couch in thought. Bucky takes that as a sign that she’s breaking out of the programming, meaning he can’t help the small smile spread across his face.

“Anything else you want to ask?” says Bucky, trying to help her more. 

She shakes her head. “I don’t remember anything.”

He nods. “It’s okay. It’ll take a while for them to come back.”

They watch the T.V. in silence for a few more minutes. “How long did it take you?” asks Brooklyn.

“Huh?”

“To – remember. How long did it take?”

Bucky sighs and scratches his neck. “To be honest – I still don’t remember everything. Every now and then Steve will tell a story of the two of us, and I don’t remember it. Some of the most important parts came back first though, like remembering Steve was my friend. I – almost killed him, and would have if I didn’t remember.”

“Oh,” is all she says.

Steve comes back a while later. Bucky and Brooklyn are still watching T.V.

“Hey, how is everything?” he asks as he walks into the room.

Bucky looks up at him. “Pretty good, all things considered. We’ve been watching T.V. all afternoon.”

Steve looks over at the T.V. “Cooking shows, huh? Why did I expect anything else from you, Bucky.” He looks over at Brooklyn. “Are you enjoying it?”

She hesitates, but then gives a small nod. 

Steve smiles. “That’s good to hear. It’s nice to get used to your surroundings before you just get thrown into everything, you know? We’ll have to start introducing more of the people who live here soon.”

She nods again and relaxes slightly. Steve is someone she can trust, if he helped Bucky out of a similar situation. 

“Are you guys hungry? I was thinking of ordering some pizza.”

Bucky nods. “I could go for some pizza.”

They both then look to Brooklyn. She looks confused for a few seconds, and then asks, “What is pizza?”

“Oh, B, you can’t even remember pizza? They truly did take everything that’s good in the world away from you.” Bucky looks to Steve. “Go order a couple of different pies.” He then turns back to Brooklyn. “Pizza is basically bread with tomato sauce, cheese, and a variety of other toppings on it. Most toppings are good, but you should stay away from pineapple.” He turns his head and raises his voice, “Because unlike what some people think, pineapple does not belong on pizza!”

Steve calls from the kitchen, “Are we really going to start this again?”

“Only if you order pineapple pizza again!”

Steve reappears in the living room. “Of course I did, we can’t be re-introducing someone to pizza and not have pineapple as an option!”

“Yes we fucking can Steve, because you’re the only fucking weirdo who likes putting fucking pineapple on their fucking pizza!”

“Obviously some other people like it, or it wouldn’t be a thing.”

“Well then you and that one other person who likes it can go fuck yourselves,” Bucky mumbles, turning his attention back to the screen. Out of the corner of his eye, he thinks he sees the ghost of a smile on Brooklyn’s face.

Steve goes to wait for the pizza as Brooklyn and Bucky continue to watch T.V., not wanting to pause the middle of this heated cooking competition. Steve brings the pizza back to them and takes the other seat on the couch, setting the pizza boxes on the table in front of them.

“Russian roulette with pizza?” Steve asks. 

Bucky is quick to deny. “No fucking way, man. I am not letting you force me to eat the first pizza I pick up, because there’s fucking pineapple on at least one of them.”

“It’s only one,” Steve promises. “The others are plain, pepperoni, sausage, meat lovers, and bacon.”

Bucky smirks. “You got me a bacon one. I thought you said that having only bacon on the pizza was ‘fueling my addiction’.”

Steve picks up the pizza on top and opens it. “I only did it to make you shut up about the pineapple pizza.” 

Bucky looks over to Brooklyn. “What would you like to try first?”

She shrugs.

Steve opens the next pizza and offers it. “Pineapple?”

“No, Steve, we don’t want to scare her away from pizza by starting with that. How about we just start nice and simple with the plain pizza.” Bucky searches the boxes until he finds it. Opening the box, he pulls a slice out for himself and then offers it to Brooklyn.

She hesitantly takes a piece and examines it. Bucky starts to shove his in his mouth. Steve has already eaten a slice of pineapple.

Brooklyn takes a bite of the pizza and chews slowly. She then swallows and takes another bite. Bucky smiles. “It’s good, huh?”

Brooklyn nods, too busy eating to answer properly. They eat through the pizzas together, Bucky gloating over Steve when Brooklyn doesn’t like the pineapple pizza. They finish the episode they were watching, and then Bucky turns the T.V. off. 

He stretches out, yawning. “We should probably head to bed. It’s getting late, and we’ve been watching T.V. today.”

Brooklyn nods, and then, without a word, leaves the living room and heads to her room.

Bucky watches her leave and sighs once she’s gone.

“She seems to be doing good,” says Steve. “Even if she doesn’t like pineapple pizza. So why are you sighing?”

“It’s just – complicated,” is all Bucky can say.

Steve raises his eyebrow, trying to get Bucky to explain.

Bucky rolls his eyes. “I don’t want to tell you, Steve. I want to wait to see – if she remembers, I want it to be on her own terms, not because I triggered it.”

Steve furrows his eyebrows. “Why wouldn’t you want to try and help her?”

Bucky sighs and stands. “Did you repeating memories help me at all? Because last I checked, they didn’t. Some of them I still don’t even remember. I don’t want to recount my side of the story, and then when she remembers, it’s different from my side, and then she gets even more confused, thinking her memories are faulty.”

“So you knew her, more than as another winter soldier.”

Bucky smiles, small, but happy. “Yeah, I did.”

He leaves the room on that note, hoping to try and get some sleep tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: All of Bucky's food opinions mirror my own, and I don't mean to offend anyone. If you do like pineapple pizza, I'm sorry Bucky is hating on it so much, but if there's anything I headcanon about Bucky, it's that he has very strong food opinions. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!!


	3. Day Two

Brooklyn had a dream in the middle of the night. It was strange and confusing, just a bunch of faces floating around, all with different expressions, usually in pain or shock. It still put her in a bad mood when she woke up.

Bucky did manage to fall asleep, but not for long, so he was already up and in the kitchen when Steve comes out. 

“I think I’m gonna go for a run,” he says. “Jarvis, what’s the weather like if I go for a run?”

“The predictions for the day are mostly sunny, but at the moment it is looking overcast, as if it might rain.”

Bucky’s eyebrows furrow in concern, but Steve doesn’t notice. “Well, I’ll risk it anyway. I’ll text on my way back, okay?”

Bucky nods and watches as Steve leaves the floor. Once the elevator doors close, Bucky starts to walk towards the bedrooms. He goes over to Brooklyn’s door and knocks, making it light enough that it won’t wake her if she is still asleep.

A few seconds later, Brooklyn peeks her head around the corner of the door.

“Hey, B, you doing okay this morning?”

She shrugs. “I guess, why?”

“It’s a little overcast outside, and the weather had been calling for partly sunny.”

“Oh. Sorry.” She nods and closes the door again. 

Bucky leaves and goes to make some breakfast. Knowing that Brooklyn is up now too, he pulls out enough eggs for the two of them and throws some bread into the toaster. Brooklyn comes out of her room in a few minutes and sits back down at the table. Bucky transfers the eggs and toast onto two plates and sets one down in front of her.

He carries his plate around the counter as Brooklyn starts to eat. He’s happy it seems like she’s making progress with getting rid of everything Hydra trained her to do. He sits down next to her and starts to eat his food.

Both of their phones buzz. Brooklyn picks hers up, Bucky ignores it. Steve made a group chat with the three of them to try and make Brooklyn feel included in things.

The text reads, _The weather sure did change fast out here. One minute, the clouds were really dark, the next, the sun was out and there were hardly any clouds. Weird. Is Thor back?_

Brooklyn drops her fork. Bucky looks at her, concerned.

“What’s up, B?”

“Does anyone know?”

Bucky looks confused. “Know what?”

She gestures to the phone, and Bucky pulls his out to read the text.

“Oh. That. I – haven’t told anyone, no. I wanted to leave that so you could tell them. Well, Natasha knows. You haven’t met her yet. But you can’t hide anything from her, and she won’t tell anyone unless you say so.”

Brooklyn nods. “Okay.”

“Oh, and I guess Jarvis probably knows something is up from our conversation.”

“I am afraid I have a hypothesis, which will only be further confirmed by unpredicted weather patterns. I will keep my hypothesis to myself, though. You have my word.”

Bucky looks to the ceiling. “Thank you, Jarvis.”

“Of course. Captain Rogers is on his way back up.”

Bucky and Brooklyn resume eating their breakfast as Steve walks in from the elevator. “Morning,” he says as he passes them, headed to his room to take a shower.

“Morning,” Bucky responds. 

Brooklyn’s phone vibrates again as Bucky gets up to clean up after breakfast.

_Hey Brooklyn, this is Sam. I’m moving into the tower today, and I wanted to meet you. I’ll be by in a few as soon as I finish making sure my boxes make it into my room._

Brooklyn doesn’t respond, and instead sets her phone back down onto the counter and continues to sit there. 

Bucky looks over his shoulder as he stands at the sink and washes the dishes. “What was that?”

“It was Sam? Wants to come meet me.”

Bucky nods. “Sam is a kind of a therapist. He works with a lot of people who have fought in a war and are experiencing problems after being home. Makes sense why he would want to see you.”

Steve re-enters the room, his hair still wet from the shower. “Jarvis said the rest of the day is going to be mostly sunny, if you would want to go out.” He looks to Brooklyn, who doesn’t answer. “It’s okay if you don’t, the outside can be pretty overwhelming at first. We could just go upstairs and sit out on the deck instead.”

There’s a knock on the door, and Steve looks at it questioningly. He walks over and opens it. “Sam!” he says, pulling Sam into a hug.

“Hey, Steve. Long time no see.”

“Did you finally finish moving in?”

Sam smiles and walks in. “Yep. I’m here to meet our other one-armed resident. Told her I was coming.”

Steve looks up at Brooklyn. “He did?”

She nods, and then stands to greet Sam.

Sam walks over to her. “Good to meet you, Brooklyn. Steve told me you were captured and used by Hydra, like Bucky was.” He extends his hand out to her.

She hesitates but then extends her metal arm, grabbing Sam’s hand to shake it.

Sam jumps and pulls his arm away. “Ow, you shocked me!” He shakes his hand back and forth in the air. 

Brooklyn looks concerned. She knows what usually happens when she shocks someone. It happened so much that the handlers had to start inflicting punishments for it. She shrinks in on herself. “I’m sorry.”

Sam stops moving his hand, hearing the mood change in the tone of her voice. “It’s okay,” he says, softly and sincerely.

She doesn’t answer.

Sam continues to talk like normal. “So, Brooklyn, how are you feeling?”

She shrugs. Bucky decides to take over the conversation. “She certainly seems to be doing better than I was when you guys first found me. From what it sounds, she managed to break her programming before they could shove her back into the cryo tank, but being back in there managed to reset some of it.”

Sam nods. “It certainly seems possible. I’m glad to see you’re doing okay though. It couldn’t have been easy, being a Hydra test subject for – I don’t even know how long.”

“I don’t know either.” Brooklyn looks down at the floor. 

Sam makes eye contact with Steve and nods. “Well, I’m going to go now, and I’m going to take Steve with me to help me unpack. If you ever need anything, just let me know.”

With that, Sam and Steve leave the floor together, leaving Bucky and Brooklyn by themselves.

Bucky looks over to Brooklyn, his eyes sad. “Come on, B. We can watch some more T.V. if you want.”

She follows Bucky into the living room and Bucky turns the T.V. to a different channel today. He avoids the news channels out of habit, from when they used to only talk about whether he was a hero or a villain. He ends up landing on animal planet, and they spend the day watching shows about fish.

Brooklyn doesn’t speak, but she does sit more casually, pointing towards her breaking more of her protocols. Steve comes back in and joins them, sitting on the other side of the couch. He pulls his sketchbook out and starts to draw.

“What is that?” Brooklyn asks, looking over at Steve.

Steve looks up at her, and then back down to his drawing. “Oh, just a little doodle I was doing.” He lifts the book up to show her better, and Bucky gets a good look at it too. It’s a picture of Steve, Bucky, and the rest of the Howling Commandos, all sitting around a fire, laughing at something.

“Stuck in the past today, are we Steve?” asks Bucky.

He shrugs. “I was thinking about it last night, thought I’d try and draw everyone else again. It doesn’t happen very often. Usually I stick to present day things.”

Bucky nods. “I understand, it’s been kind of nostalgic around here recently. I don’t blame you for thinking that way.”

“I’m getting kind of hungry, anything you want?” Steve asks, subtly changing the subject.

Bucky waits to see if Brooklyn will answer, and when she doesn’t, suggests, “Why not some burgers? There’s that place Tony always orders from down the street.”

Steve nods. “Okay, I’ll order some burgers and fries then.” He sets the sketchbook to the side and gets up to order food again.

When the food comes in, Bucky and Steve split it up between the three of them evenly. They all eat in silence as they watch the T.V.

When they are done eating, Steve turns the T.V. off. “Come on, we could all use some sleep.”

Bucky nods and picks up their trash, and watches as Brooklyn walks off to her room.

Steve watches how Bucky looks at her and rolls his eyes. “Come on Buck, you gotta do something.”

Bucky looks at him, confusion on his face. “About what?”

“Don’t lie to me Bucky, I see the way you look at her. Something important happened between the two of you, didn’t it?”

Bucky sighs, not wanting to give Steve the details. He knows that Steve won’t let him leave without saying something though, so Bucky says, “It’s my fault. That she’s in this mess. Sure, she had already been a Hydra captive, but …” Bucky trails off. “The whole Winter Soldier brainwashing thing – that was my fault.”

Steve can see Bucky is sad about this, so he doesn’t push it further. Instead, he claps his hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “Go get some sleep, pal. You need it.”

Bucky nods, and Steve leaves to go to his room. Bucky stays in the kitchen by himself for a few seconds, then reluctantly goes to his bedroom, alone.


	4. Day Three

Brooklyn is the last one to wake up again, and breakfast is already ready for her. They all eat together, and Steve cleans up when they are done. 

Brooklyn speaks up. “Yesterday … You said something about a deck?”

Bucky looks at her with an eyebrow raised. “You want to go up there?”

Brooklyn hesitates, but then nods. 

“Okay. Steve, we’ll be upstairs then if you want to come meet us.”

Steve nods, and Bucky leads Brooklyn over to the elevator. 

“Jarvis, common floor please.”

“Of course.”

The elevator doors slide together and take the two of them upstairs. When they get off of the elevator, Tony and Bruce are sitting on the couches, looking over something. They both wave in greetings as Bucky and Brooklyn walk by. Bucky waves back and Brooklyn raises her hand in acknowledgment.

Bucky opens the glass door for Brooklyn and she walks out onto the deck, seeing chairs set up overlooking the city. She sits down in one, and Bucky follows behind her, taking the chair next to her.

They look out over the city together for a long time, watching as cars drive around the place, as well as the people walking around, so small from up there that they look like ants.

Steve joins them eventually, bringing Natasha.

Brooklyn looks up when he does come in, seeing Natasha before Bucky sees her. 

Steve gestures to Natasha while looking at Brooklyn. “This is Natasha, she lives here in the tower.”

Brooklyn nods at her, and Natasha nods back. “Приятно с вами познакомиться," Natasha says.

“И тебе тоже. Я слышал, ты знаешь мой секрет?” Brooklyn asks.

Natasha spares a glance at Bucky. “Я никому не скажу, Не волнуйся.”

Bucky leans back in his chair and addresses Brooklyn. “Я же говорил, что она в порядке.”

“Hi, don’t forget I’m still here,” says Steve, since he doesn’t speak Russian. 

Natasha flashes a smile at him. “We didn’t forget. It’s nice to see you confused sometimes.”

Bucky laughs, and Steve rolls his eyes.

Natasha looks back to Brooklyn. “I have to go, but I wanted to come say hi while I was here. I’ll be around if you need me.”

With that, she turns around and walks away. Steve pulls out his sketchbook and Starts to draw the skyline.

Brooklyn looks out over the city again for a few minutes. Then she says, “Tokyo.”

Bucky looks over to her. “What about Tokyo?”

“I remember – I remember sitting on a roof. Like this. Except – I had a gun with me. Watched the city through the scope.”

Bucky nods. “I get memories back like that too. Being in a similar situation, it can trigger a memory.” He smiles. “But that’s a good sign, means your memory is starting to come back.” His smile then falters. “Though, if it happens like it did with me, it also means the occurrence of a lot of nightmares.”

Brooklyn nods, lost in thought as she is remembering what happened in Tokyo. She thinks it would be best if she doesn’t share the rest of the memory out loud.

When she comes back to the present, she looks over at Steve, busy drawing. Bucky catches her looking, and asks, “Did you want to try and draw? I can go find some paper and a pencil.”

Brooklyn looks to Bucky, then gives a small nod.

“I’ll get it, Buck. I know where some is.” He sets his sketchbook down and goes back inside. Once he is gone, Jarvis speaks up.

“Excuse me, but I would like to share a theory if you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead,” replies Bucky.

“Perhaps Ms. Lowell has been recovering faster than you because she has more of a resistance to electricity?”

Bucky nods, thinking. “It could be possible.” He looks to Brooklyn. “It would explain why you were never out of the freezer for long periods of time.”

Steve comes back outside, so the conversation drops. 

“Here, I found a notebook and some pencils,” Steve says, handing them to Brooklyn. She takes them and flips the pencil over in her hand a few times, studying it. Steve sits back down in his chair and Bucky leans his head back against the chair, shutting his eyes against the sun. 

Suddenly Bucky feels metal on his shoulder. He opens his eyes and looks over to see Brooklyn has her hand on his shoulder, shaking him gently. He looks out into the city and sees that the sun is starting to set.

Bucky sits up and stretches. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. How long was I out for?”

“A few hours. Steve went to make food.”

Bucky nods and stands, extending his hand to help Brooklyn up. She picks up the notebook on her lap and closes it before taking his hand, giving Bucky a glimpse of what she had been drawing. He thinks he saw a person, but he wasn’t about to ask, if Brooklyn was comfortable with it she would show him. 

Bucky leads Brooklyn back down to their floor, where Steve has almost finished making dinner. He turns to look at them and grins. “So, Sleeping Beauty awakes.”

“Shut up, Punk,” Bucky answers as he slides into his seat at the island.

Brooklyn sits down next to him. “What is Sleeping Beauty?” she asks hesitantly.

Bucky laughs. “Sorry, I forgot. Hydra doesn’t do a good job keeping us updated on pop culture. We’ll have to start showing you some movies so you can understand the references. Tony mentions them all the time, and it could be really confusing if you’ve never seen the movie.”

Steve turns around and starts to fill plates with spaghetti. “Yeah, when I first woke up from the ice, everyone was throwing references left and right, and I only understood something like every one out of a hundred references.”

Steve slides the plates over and then sits down in his seat. They eat the spaghetti in mostly silence, but Bucky can tell something is on Brooklyn’s mind.

When they finish eating, Steve takes the plates to start cleaning up while Bucky addresses the issue.

“Is everything okay, B?”

She looks at him, startled out of her thoughts, and tilts her head. Then she turns to Steve. “Did Hydra have you too?”

Steve turns around to look at her. “Why do you ask that?”

“You said woke up from the ice so I thought…” she mumbles, trailing off at the end. 

Steve shakes his head. “It’s okay. No, they didn’t have me. I – I crashed a plane full of bombs into the Arctic to make sure it didn’t hurt anyone, sacrificing myself. I thought I was dead, but almost seventy years later, the wreck resurfaced, and they found me frozen in the ice. They thawed me, and here I am now.”

“Oh,” is all Brooklyn responds with.

Bucky puts his hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, you didn’t know. I guess that’s something we're gonna have to do too, huh? Catch you up on everyone’s backstories so you know if they reference it.”

Steve turns back to the dishes. “Maybe not tonight though. That seems like something a whole day should be set aside for.”

“Why don’t we watch Sleeping Beauty, so you know what that means?” Bucky says.

Steve agrees and finishes the dishes. Brooklyn follows the two men into the living room, where Jarvis has already set the movie up.

“Thanks, Jarvis,” Steve says as he sits.

“Of course.”

The movie starts to play, and Brooklyn watches diligently. Bucky hardly watches, spending most of the movie watching Brooklyn to make sure nothing triggers a flashback for some reason.

When the movie finishes, Steve yawns. “What did you think, Brooklyn?”

She shrugs.

Bucky takes this as a sign that she isn’t able to form her own opinions yet. It’s okay though, at least she's asking questions freely now.

“Maybe we should head to bed. We can start introducing everyone’s backgrounds tomorrow if you want.” Bucky stands off of the couch, and Steve nods.

“Oh, I think Sam was going to come down again tomorrow. I don’t know what for.”

Bucky can see it in Steve’s face that he’s lying, but he decides not to push it. If Sam is coming, and Steve doesn’t want to say the reason, then he can wait until tomorrow. 

Bucky didn’t even notice Brooklyn had left already until he looked back to the couch to see it empty. He sighs and goes back to his bedroom, hoping his nap means he can get back to sleep like normal.


	5. Day Four

Brooklyn walks into the kitchen last, as usual. Steve puts a plate of food in front of her when she sits down, and she eats it wordlessly. Bucky sips on his coffee, scrolling through a news article on his phone. 

When everyone is finished, Steve goes to collect the plates but is stopped by a metal hand on his. He looks up at Brooklyn.

“Let me do it.”

Steve nods and moves his hand away. Brooklyn collects the plates and takes them to the sink, washing them herself. Bucky smiles to himself, glad she seems to be breaking her programming more.

“So,” says Bucky as Brooklyn is washing the dishes. “Did we want to start our course about everyone who lives in the tower?”

Steve shrugs. “It’s okay with me, as long as you’re okay with it Brooklyn.”

She looks over at Steve and then shrugs. “Why not.”

Bucky looks at the ceiling above him when he hears a noise. His eyes quickly scan the room to see where all the vents are, and the paths between them. He sighs. “Clint, what are you doing?”

Brooklyn turns around, confused. There’s no one else here. Then she hears a noise too and looks up at the ceiling. Her hand subconsciously goes to a gun she has hidden.

Bucky sees this and quickly stops her. “No, no, don’t worry, it’s just the idiot in the tower who travels through the vents.”

“Hey!” comes a muffled response from above. “I’m not an idiot.”

“Says the person who didn’t tell me he crawls around in the vents and nearly got shot the first time I heard you. You’re lucky I was here, Brooklyn probably would have shot at you if I wasn’t.”

Steve sighs and puts his hand on his face. “Just come out of the vents, Clint. Might as well introduce you while you’re here.”

There’s a bit of noise, and then the vent cover on the ceiling drops down. Clint follows behind it, dropping himself down onto the floor.

“Don’t tell Nat I’m here please,” he says, and then walks over to Brooklyn. “I’m Clint. Also known as Hawkeye, but it sounds like these guys haven’t told you anything about the rest of us yet, so you probably don’t know that.”

“You gotta be careful around him B, he’ll steal your food if you don’t pay attention.”

Clint points to him as he walks over to the fridge. “And sometimes when you are paying attention.” He opens the fridge and looks inside. “Ooh, strawberries!” He pulls the carton out and starts to eat them. 

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Anyways, since you’re here Clint, would you like to start us off with telling Brooklyn about everyone?”

Clint takes another bite of a strawberry and speaks with a full mouth, “Sure.” He swallows and then continues.

“I was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent before it went boom, trained as an assassin. I use a bow and arrow, which people tend to laugh at, but then they stop laughing after I manage to pants them with one arrow. I got roped into this squad of dorks because I knew how to fly the quinjet to get Nat and Steve here to New York for the fight, and they somehow haven’t kicked me out yet.” He takes another strawberry out and puts the carton back in the fridge.

“Wow, you actually put the food away before I yelled at you,” says Bucky.

Clint shrugs. “I figured I should probably get going before Nat finds me here.”

“Why are you hiding from Natasha anyways?” asks Steve.

“It’s Nat, and I may have been snooping through her stuff again and ate all of her chocolate.”

Bucky shakes his head. “Why do you keep doing this?”

Clint jumps onto the counter. “Because it’s free food.”

With that, he jumps up and grabs a hold of the edge of the hole in the vent, and then swings himself up into it. Steve sighs and picks the vent cover up, and uses a chair to help him replace it. 

There’s a knock at the door. “Come on in,” Bucky says.

Sam walks into the kitchen and finds Steve getting down from a chair. “I guess I just missed Clint, huh?”

“Yeah, apparently he’s hiding from Natasha.”

“Again? This happened last week too.”

Bucky sighs. “And the week before that, and the week before that… It’s pretty much a weekly thing where he eats all of her food and then hides from her, thinking she’s going to catch him and do something to him.”

Sam raises his eyebrow. “She’s not going to?”

Bucky laughs. “Natasha wouldn’t care unless it was her stash of vodka. She’s told me herself. She likes to see Clint squirm and think she’s going to catch him and do something about him eating all of her food.”

Sam shakes his head. “Man, that woman is scary.”

“Hey Sam,” says Steve. “We’re trying to catch Brooklyn up on everyone’s backstories so she knows more about everyone in the tower. Would you like to share yours?”

“Sure.” He leans against the counter and looks towards Brooklyn, who looks back at him intently. “I was in the air force, worked pararescue. I had been out for a while until Steve over there found me and asked for help. I helped him take down Hydra, again, and everyone’s let me stick around ever since. I go by Falcon, I have a pack that goes on my back that extends into wings.”

“Speaking of which, did Tony finish his updates on them yet?” asks Steve.

“Yeah, he finished them last night. We were out flying this morning. Handles like a dream, and the wings can’t get ripped out as easy now.” He directs the last part at Bucky, who gives him an apologetic smile.

Brooklyn looks confused. “What does that mean?”

Sam waves his hand. “Long story short, when we were taking down Hydra this moron,” he says, jabbing a thumb in Bucky’s direction, “was still under their control, ripped one of my wings off of the pack, and threw me off of the helicarrier in midair. I barely opened my chute in time.”

Bucky clears his throat. “I thought we were over this.”

“Oh, I accepted your apology, but that doesn’t mean I can’t keep talking about it.”

Bucky rolls his eyes.

“Anyways, that’s not what I came down here for.” Sam looks at Bucky. “I need to borrow you for a few minutes, you have some time?”

Bucky looks surprised, and his eyes shoot to Brooklyn, and then Steve.

Steve replies, “Go ahead, Buck, I’ll start with my story next for Brooklyn, and keep on going with the others.”

“Okay,” Bucky says reluctantly, and then follows Sam to the elevator. Jarvis already knows where they are going, because as soon as the doors close, the elevator starts to move. Sam doesn’t say anything for the few seconds they are in the elevator together.

When the doors open, Sam steps out first, leading Bucky into his living room. 

Bucky looks around, wondering what Sam needed him there for until Sam points at a chair. 

“Sit.”

Bucky looks at him. “What?”

Sam sits down across from the seat he pointed at. “You heard me.”

Bucky slowly sits down, on edge.

“So,” Sam starts. “Steve thinks you need to talk to me.” 

Bucky leans back, covering his face with his hand. “Shit. Is this an intervention?”

“That depends on how you look at it.”

Bucky sighs. “What are we talking about?”

Sam pulls his phone out. “You tell me.” He scrolls down his phone as he reads off, "‘Bucky won’t talk about something in front of Brooklyn.’ ‘Bucky and Brooklyn have history, but Bucky won’t tell me.’ ‘He seems to be following her around like a lost puppy, did I do that?’”

Bucky rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything.

“Come on, man. This is all he’s been saying for the past four days. Ever since you rescued Brooklyn. I said yes to that last one, by the way, he definitely did that when we first got you back.”

“Do I have to stay here?”

Sam leans back in the chair. “I’m not keeping you here, but if you don’t spill now, that just means I can keep coming back and pulling you away from everyone. This sounds serious, and like something you should get off of your chest before it hurts you.”

Bucky sighs again and looks at Sam. “You promise not to tell anyone?”

Sam nods. “Of course. I will only tell someone if you want me to. I’ll let Steve know you talked to me about it, so you’re doing better now.”

Bucky sits up and looks down at his lap. “I don’t remember everything, just bits and pieces.”

“That’s okay man, just tell me what you’ve got.”

Bucky looks up at Sam. “I knew her, back in the day. Before she was turned into a Winter Soldier. She was a Hydra prisoner, forced to do as they told her to, or she would die. One day, they gave her a new assignment. She was assigned to be the Winter Soldier’s handler.”

Sam quirks an eyebrow but stays silent.

“The details surrounding the mission we had are fuzzy. She was to work with me on something. She was – the nicest handler I ever had. Treated me like an actual person. Understood what I had been through, being a prisoner and a lab rat of Hydra’s herself. Something happened on the mission that she didn’t like, and she led me into the forest. We hid in there for a few weeks. We even found a little abandoned house we used for shelter.”

Bucky looks back down at his hands. “Again, she treated me like a normal person. ‘We’re going to find your name, I’m going to help you remember’ she said, at least once a day. We spent days just sitting around, and she would make up stories to fill the hours up. Days turned into weeks, and I felt something I couldn’t recognize. I was programmed without emotion, after all, and hadn't remembered about emotions yet. So, one day, I followed my instincts.”

Sam groans. “Don’t tell me you kissed her, man. That’s so cliche.”

Bucky laughs softly. “Looking back now, I can tell it had been love. But I didn’t know how to show it. So yes, I kissed her. She had just finished a story, and we were looking at each other, and I kissed her. I still remember pulling away, and seeing her shocked face.” He buries his face in his hands, trying to fight back tears. “Before she could do or say anything in response, the windows shattered. Hydra found us and restrained us. We were taken back to the base. I only wish they could have put me back in cryo then. No, I was forced to sit in a cell and listen as her screams carried down the hall. As they turned her into a Winter Soldier.” Bucky swallows. “She had both arms the last time I had seen her. Then, I caught a glimpse of her when we were both out of cryo, and her arm was metal.”

Sam shakes his head. “Man, I don’t know what I was expecting, but I don’t think it was that.” He looks at Bucky. “Are you sure you’re okay with not telling her this?”

Bucky nods. “I don’t know if she felt the same way towards me. I don’t want to tell her, and then she thinks she liked me back, only to find out she didn’t, or something like that, you know?”

“So you’re just going to, what, sit around and wait to see if she remembers?”

Bucky nods. “At least I’m not letting her fight me and almost kill me to see if she’ll remember.”

“Touché,” responds Sam. “Steve really is reckless, isn’t he?”

“You should have seen him when he was still a twig,” Bucky says, finding moving away from Brooklyn made it easier to talk. “Imagine him the way he is now, but only like ninety pounds with no muscle.”

“How the hell did he survive?”

Bucky shrugs. “I still don’t know how he lasted long enough for me to come around to get him out of all of those fights.”

Sam laughs. Once it dies, he looks at Bucky again. “I’m here to talk to if you need me, okay? Even if it's the middle of the night and I'm asleep. Just bring coffee and I'll listen. I’ll let you go back to your crush now,” Sam says with a wink.

Bucky flips him off. “You keep calling it that I won’t speak to you ever again.”

Sam leans back against the chair. “Fine with me.”

Bucky goes over to the elevator and waits until the doors start to close to respond with, “I guess you won’t be seeing any of my baked goods again then.”

He watches with a smile on his face as Sam shoots up and runs over to the elevator. “No, wait!” is all he can get before the doors close. Bucky hears through the doors, “I take that back, I’m sorry!”

Bucky takes the elevator back down to their floor and hears parts of conversation coming out of the living room.

“So he took him back to his home after that, letting us sit in peace for a while.”

Bucky walks into the living room. “What’s that, Steve?”

Steve looks up at Bucky. “Oh, I went through my stuff and Tony’s already, and we hardly know anything about Natasha so she didn’t take long at all. Bruce stopped by with some paperwork and was able to talk about his other half. So I got to Thor and Loki.”

Bucky sits down and joins them, shaking his head. “I don’t know how you got through all that so fast.”

“Buck you’ve been gone for like an hour and a half.”

Bucky furrows his eyebrows. “I have?”

Brooklyn points to the clock on the TV stand, and Bucky sees that he had been gone a lot longer than he thought.

Brooklyn then turns to Bucky. “Are they really gods?”

“I still haven’t met Loki, so I wouldn’t know how he is. But, yeah, Thor is definitely best described as a god. I think I heard he’d be coming back next week, so you’ll be able to meet him. He’s an – interesting character, to say the least.”

Steve nods. “Well, I can get back to the story now.”

Steve catches Brooklyn up on all the fights the Avengers have had to deal with, from the Chitauri to the Ultron bots. Bucky orders food as Steve sits and talks, and when it comes in, Steve is finally finished.

“Do we want to watch another movie?” Steve asks as Bucky is splitting up the food.

“Sure. Why don’t we do another Disney one?”

That’s how they got to be watching Snow White while eating Chinese out of the cartons. The movie ends, and Steve sighs.

“I remember seeing that in theaters way back when it first came out. I think, before the war, I wanted to try and get a job as an animator.” Steve leans back, recalling his memories. “I remember when I tried my hand at drawing cartoons for the newspaper. They decided I wasn’t funny enough and fired me for a funnier person.” Steve shrugs. “At least it wasn’t because of my health that I was fired for once.”

“I remember I boycotted the newspaper after that,” Bucky says. “Wouldn’t give them a cent because they fired you. You thought I was being too dramatic about it, and that it didn’t matter.”

Steve laughs. “Yeah, I told you to let it go, and you wouldn’t. I packed it as wrapping in one of those boxes I sent you before I was able to join you, and you were pissed, you wrote a whole letter back just about the stupid newspaper.”

Brooklyn looks between the boys, obviously not being able to remember their memory, but enjoying listening to the recount nonetheless. She then yawns.

“I’m going to head to bed if that’s alright?” she asks, and Steve nods.

“Yeah, I should probably go too. Long day tomorrow, Sam wants me to go with him to a family function to prove to his uncle that he really does know Captain America.”

Brooklyn stands, and Bucky snorts. “Have fun with that,” they both say at the same time, and then look at each other, a glimmer of laughter in Brooklyn’s eyes. She then walks away, back to her bedroom, to get some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, we've finally reached some of the plot. :)


	6. Day Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Mentions of torture and violence, check end notes for more of a description if needed

Brooklyn’s had a good week, finally breaking out of her protocol and starting to act like a person again. But the longer she’s awake, the chance of her having a nightmare increases.

Bucky wakes up all of a sudden in the middle of the night. A quick glance at the clock next to the bed says it’s three in the morning. Thunder rolls ominously in the sky. He wonders why he’s up when another scream rips through the air, and his door flies open. 

Bucky has a knife pressed against the attacker's throat before he realizes it’s just Steve.

“Sorry,” Bucky mumbles, letting go of Steve.

Steve dismisses it to say, “Bucky, its Brooklyn.”

Bucky pushes past Steve and out into the hallway. Another scream rips through the air and a flash of lightning illuminates the dark hallway briefly, leaving a bright spot dancing in Bucky’s eyes. He throws the door to Brooklyn’s bedroom open and rushes in.

Brooklyn is on the bed, thrashing around violently. The gears in her arm are whirring so loud even a person with normal hearing would be able to hear it.

Bucky quickly walks over to the bed and stands over Brooklyn. He puts his hands on her shoulders and pushes down to stop her from thrashing. He then starts to shake her. 

“Come on, B, wake up!”

An ear-shattering peal of thunder splits through the air, and Brooklyn’s eyes shoot open. She throws Bucky across the room, which he had been expecting, and he rolls away, just in case she sends something else at him. 

He stands and looks back to the bed, where Brooklyn is sitting up, breathing heavily. Bucky slowly makes his way back to her, and he sees Steve standing in the doorway.

Bucky slowly puts his hands on top of Brooklyn’s as another peal of thunder rings outside, much more subdued.

“Hey, B. It’s okay. You’re here in the tower. No one’s here to hurt you.”

Lightning flashes and Brooklyn fights to calm her breathing as the storm fades into the distance. Steve disappears from the doorway for a few minutes and then reappears with three mugs of hot tea. He gives two to Bucky and keeps one for himself.

Bucky sets one down and offers the other to Brooklyn. “Here, drink this. It’ll help you feel better.”

She takes it with shaky hands and holds it for a few seconds, then takes a sip.

Bucky waits until it seems she’s calmed down to ask, “Do you want to talk about it?”

She shakes her head.

“That’s okay, you don’t have to.” He looks to Steve, and then back to Brooklyn. “How about we move to the living room, okay? I don’t think we’re getting any more sleep tonight. We can put something on the T.V. to watch.”

She hesitates but then nods. Bucky moves so she can get out of the bed, and Steve goes to the living room. 

Brooklyn follows Bucky out and waits until they sit down on the couch to ask, “Can we watch more cooking shows?”

“Whatever you want, B.” He turns the T.V. on and finds Food Network, turning the volume down so they can still hear it, but it’s soft.

Brooklyn pulls one of the blankets off of the back of the couch and wraps up in it, holding her mug steady between her hands. She curls up under the blanket, making herself as small as possible.

When the sun comes up, Bucky gets up to make some bagels to bring into the living room for breakfast. He sees out the window that it is still overcast, so he pays extra attention to making sure Brooklyn’s bagel is good.

He sits back down in the living room and passes the bagels out, and they eat in silence as they watch the show.

Steve stands when he’s done. “I promised Sam I’d go train with him today, so I better get going. Just text me or ask Jarvis to get me if either of you need anything.” With that, he walks out of the room.

Bucky stays by Brooklyn’s side the rest of the morning, and they spend the whole time watching the various cooking shows that come on. Brooklyn doesn’t really seem to be paying attention though, something Bucky notices from the faraway look in her eyes.

Steve comes back after lunch with Sam. Bucky moves from the couch to the kitchen to talk to them.

“Hey, man, how you feeling?” Sam asks when Bucky comes into the room.

“I’m okay. Steve tell you anything?”

Sam nods. “How is she?”

“Hasn’t said a word all morning, and she's barely paying attention to the T.V. Must have been a pretty bad nightmare.”

Steve hums as he thinks. “Seems like she's acting sort of like you did when you started remembering the process they went through to make you the Winter Soldier.”

Bucky’s eyes grow wide at the thought, and Sam can see the connection Bucky has made to what Bucky had told him. “Was I really like that?” Bucky asks Steve.

“Yeah, took you forever to finally tell me what was going on.”

Sam looks at Bucky. “That doesn’t mean she remembers all of it though,” trying to help him not freak out at the possibility that she remembered him and didn’t like it.

Bucky nods, lost in thought. 

Sam turns back to Steve and puts his hand on his shoulder. “Maybe we should go. She might open up about it with just Bucky here, once she’s back to her normal self.”

Bucky looks to Sam with wordless thanks, and Sam nods. He and Steve leave again, and Bucky goes back into the living room with Brooklyn. His phone vibrates, so he looks down at it.  
 _  
Natasha: hey, don’t be all moody around her, okay?_

_Bucky: was it sam or steve_

_Natasha: steve. I'm here if you need me to come down_

_Bucky: thanks, but i'd rather no one else be here for now  
_  
Bucky puts his phone on silent, and then sets it on the table next to the couch, turning his attention to the T.V. After another episode, Brooklyn shifts next to him and starts poking him with her foot.

He looks over at her with a smile. “Can I help you?”

“Turn it off please.”

Bucky picks up the remote and turns the T.V. off. He then turns back to Brooklyn to figure out what she wants.

She takes a few breaths and readjusts herself under the blanket before talking. “I – my dream last night.”

Bucky nods, showing her he’s paying attention.

“It was a memory. I remembered – I remembered when I lost my arm.” She looks up at him. “Do you know how it happened?”

Bucky shakes his head. “I don’t remember reading it in any of the Hydra files I’ve read through.”

Brooklyn sighs and looks at her right hand. “I did something wrong. I can’t remember what, but – they didn’t like it. They weren’t happy with me. It was when they started to – to brainwash me.”

Bucky’s eyes grow wide. He remembers hearing her screams cutting through the air.

A tear falls down Brooklyn’s face, and she quickly wipes it away before continuing. “They took it away as punishment. They must have made yours already so they knew how to do it. Cut it off, piece by piece.” She holds her arm out and uses her left hand to imitate a blade, hitting each of her fingers individually, then her wrist, and then moves up her arm to her shoulder, hitting her arm every few inches. 

Bucky looks at her, upset she had to deal with that. She wipes away another tear, and Bucky can’t hold back. He carefully wraps his arms around her and pulls her close, into a hug. He gives Brooklyn plenty of chances to pull away, but she doesn’t, instead leaning her head into his chest when she gets close enough.

Bucky rocks them back and forth on the couch slightly, while rubbing circles along her back. “I promise I won’t ever let anyone do that to you again.”

Brooklyn laughs softly, and Bucky can feel the vibrations of her talking against his chest. “Yeah, I’d like to keep at least one normal arm.”

Bucky’s face lifts in a small smile. Brooklyn’s laugh is beautiful, and she only just started to laugh again. He wants to do everything he can to keep hearing her laugh.

They sit there like that for a long time, neither of them feeling the need to move away. Eventually, Brooklyn’s stomach starts to growl, and they break apart to have Steve come back down so he can make dinner.

“I will prepare my go-to comfort food that you haven’t tried yet. So sit back, relax, and Bucky, butter some bread.”

Bucky gets up and looks out the window before he helps Steve in the kitchen. The clouds have started to break up, and seem to be drifting away. 

Steve makes a stack of grilled cheese sandwiches and some tomato soup, happy when Brooklyn likes the new dish. 

“It’s such a simple dish,” she says around a mouthful of food. “You wouldn’t think it’s gonna taste this good, but it does.”

Bucky nods and takes another bite of his, also talking with food in his mouth. “This is just the basic form too. It’s like a pizza, you can customize it with different cheeses, or just adding different toppings, like bacon.”

An idea sparks in Steve’s eyes. “Ooh, I hadn’t thought about trying pineapple on my grilled cheese.” He ducks as Bucky’s spoon goes flying towards his face.

“Fuck. No. It’s bad enough you eat it on your pizza, leave the fucking grilled cheese alone.”

Brooklyn giggles as Steve and Bucky stare each other down.

“Come on, Buck, at least let me try –”

“Jarvis, Steve isn’t allowed to order pineapples. Don’t let him order pineapples. For fuck's sake. Please.”

Steve gets up and starts to root through the cabinets. “I think I had some – ah hah!” He pulls a can out of the cabinet and subsequently gets tackled by Bucky, trying to take the canned pineapples away from him.

They wrestle on the floor for the can, grunting as they speak.

“Please, Buck – “

“Shit. No. Fuck. I’m not letting you –”

“Just one sandwich–”

“You said just one pizza and look where that’s gotten us–”

They continue to argue as Natasha walks in. Brooklyn waves hi from her vantage point over the boys, taking the opportunity to steal some extra sandwiches. Natasha raises her eyebrow at the sight on the floor and Brooklyn swallows before explaining.

“Steve wants to try pineapple on his grilled cheese.”

Natasha nods in understanding. Everyone knows Bucky’s hatred of the pizza. Tony thinks there’s no way Steve actually likes it; that he’s just doing it to piss everyone else off. Especially Bucky.

Natasha leans over and pulls the can away from the boys before they can stop her. They stop fighting and look up at her.

“This is getting ridiculous. Bucky, you need to recognize that, for some strange reason, Steve does like pineapples on his pizza, and you can’t change that fact. Steve, you need to realize that you’re the only insane person in the tower who likes pineapple on pizza. If you want to try it on a grilled cheese, go ahead. But it might be best to make them when no one else is around, so no one is there to be disgusted by it. Got it?”

They both nod.

Natasha sets the can down on the counter. “Good.”

Steve and Bucky help each other up, muttering, “Punk,” and “Jerk,” to each other.

Steve brushes off his shirt and Bucky picks up another sandwich. “So, what brings you here, Natasha?” asks Steve.

“I wanted to let you know Thor will be coming back in two days, so Tony’s planning a big dinner for all of us. Does pizza work for you?”

Steve nods. “Yeah, sounds good to me.”

Bucky speaks through a mouthful of food, “Who do you think I am, a pizza hater?”

Brooklyn nods. “I like pizza.”

Natasha quirks her eyebrow. “They’ve already had you try pizza again, I see. Did Steve have you try the pineapple?”

She nods again. “Yeah. I didn’t like it.”

Natasha nods too. “Yeah, not many people do. It’s strange that pizza shops sell it often enough to keep it on the menu.” With that, she leaves, silence filling the air as the rest of the sandwiches are eaten.

Brooklyn yawns. “I think – I should be able to get some sleep now. We were up really early this morning, we should probably go to sleep earlier than normal.”

Bucky nods. “Yeah, I agree. Steve?”

Steve shakes his head. “I have some experimenting to do.”

Bucky rolls his eyes and leaves the kitchen, walking back to the bedrooms with Brooklyn. He stops in front of her room with her. “Goodnight, B.”

“Goodnight, Bucky.” She enters her room, and Bucky goes back down the hall to his, ready to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically, Brooklyn remembers how she lost her arm and relays it to Bucky. It's not a graphic description, I don't mention blood at all, but there's a chance with the mental image you could get from it that you might not like it. It's almost directly after the texts if you want to keep an eye out for it.


	7. Day Thirteen

Brooklyn shuffles into the kitchen before Bucky and Steve for once. She goes right over to the coffee machine and starts it, knowing that Bucky drinks a lot of coffee in the morning. She then shuffles around in the fridge and pulls out the milk, settling for a bowl of cereal for breakfast. 

As Brooklyn sits and eats, the smell of coffee starts to drift through the air, and Steve walks into the kitchen. 

“Morning, Brooklyn. I’m gonna go for a run, do you want to join?”

She declines him with a shake of her head, so he leaves the room to go to the elevator. Soon after, Bucky enters the room, making a beeline for the fresh pot of coffee. He downs two mugs before filling a third and joining Brooklyn at the table. 

“You make this?” he asks her, gesturing to the cup of coffee.

“Yeah, I was the first one up.”

Bucky takes another sip. “It’s good. I like it. Better than Steve’s weak ass coffee.”

“Is that why you drink so much of it?”

He shrugs. “Maybe. Or I need all the caffeine to get me going in the morning. Steve says I never was a morning person.”

Bucky looks down at his phone as it vibrates. 

_Steve: Thor just arrived. Tony’s complaining about the burn mark he left on the ground as usual. I told him about our new friend; he wants to meet her._

Bucky takes another drink out of his coffee mug. “Thor’s here already. Steve says he wants to meet you. You up for that, or do you want to wait until dinner?”

“Sure. Just let me change?”

“Of course.”

Brooklyn goes back to her room to change out of her pajamas. Bucky finishes his mug of coffee before going back to his room to do the same. They meet in the hallway and walk to the elevator together. 

Bucky walks out of the elevator first, knowing that Thor can be overbearing at times, and doesn’t want Brooklyn to get scared off before she gets to know him.

“There you are, brother James! It is good to see you. How are you fairing?” Thor extends his hand, so Bucky extends his, and Thor clasps his forearm in greeting.

“I’m doing okay, Thor. How are you?”

“I am doing wonderful, thank you! Asgard is prospering, and Loki is repenting for his crimes against this fair city.”

Thor lets go of Bucky’s arm and then spots Brooklyn behind him, so he turns his attention to her. “Ah, the Lady Brooklyn!”

Bucky steps to the side to let Thor talk to Brooklyn since that is the reason she came up. He watches as Thor studies her for a few seconds, and then gives her a small bow.

“Brother Steven has informed me of what has happened to you. I am truly sorry you had to go through the same horrors brother James had to.”

Slightly confused, Brooklyn bows back, unsure of what else to do. “Thank you, Thor.”

Thor straightens up. “Of course, Lady Brooklyn! I know how hard it was for James to get through after he was finally able to break the terrible curse, so it must be hard for you as well.”

The elevator opens again behind them, and Thor turns his attention to the next man. “Brother Clint! It has certainly been a while.”

Brooklyn follows Bucky to the couches in the middle of the room, sitting down next to him when he sits. 

“So,” she starts, looking at Bucky. “James?”

Bucky sighs. “That’s my actual name. James Buchanan Barnes. Someone told Thor my name was James, and he wouldn’t stop no matter how many times I told him it’s Bucky. So I gave up and just deal with it.”

“Has anyone else tried to call you James?”

Bucky’s face drops into a small scowl. “Once.”

Brooklyn decides to drop it there. 

Tony comes over to the couches and sits across from them. “So, cyborg, how's the arm?” Both Brooklyn and Bucky look at him, confused, so he rolls his eyes. “God, I meant Brooklyn. I really need to figure out some different nicknames for you so that you two can distinguish who I’m talking to.”

Brooklyn shrugs. “It’s working fine, I guess, it’s not like I have been using it for much.”

Tony’s eyes light up. “We should get you down into the gym soon! That way you can test it to make sure it’s doing okay, of course.”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Of course, it’s totally not because you want to see how she fights.”

“Now why would I do that? Anyways, you feeling up to it now? Cause we’re all not doing anything right now with Thor just getting here, so we could all go down together if you wanted and we can do all sorts of things.”

“And by we, he doesn’t mean him,” Bucky says. “He’s got that suit of armor, so he doesn’t usually train in the gym, he just sits there and watches everyone else. Sometimes if we’re sparring, he gives us scores and tells us who ‘won’ at the end of the sparring.”

Tony shrugs. “It is what it is. What do you say?”

Brooklyn also shrugs. “Sure, I guess. It’s not like I had anything else planned.” She looks over to Bucky. “Unless you had something in mind for today?”

Bucky shakes his head. “Just the team dinner later. If you want to go, we can head down.”

Tony stands. “I’ll meet you down there, Peter’s gonna kill me if I don’t eat something first.”

Bucky stands and starts to walk back to the elevator. Brooklyn follows. They stop where the rest of the Avengers are talking to let them know what's going on.

“Tony wants to test Brooklyn’s arm out, make sure it’s working, so if anyone else wants to come down, we’ll be starting as soon as Tony eats something.”

The others nod, so Bucky and Brooklyn leave and enter the elevator, taking it down to the gym. The doors open up, and Brooklyn can’t help but look around, stunned. It’s a big open room with a matted floor covering most of it. Where the mat isn’t, there are exercise machines and weight benches. Some punching bags are set up in one corner, and the one wall is a rock climbing wall, complete with small wooden platforms sticking out at random heights, just big enough for someone to sit on. 

Bucky leads Brooklyn in, and she notices something she missed when she was first looking around. There’s an indoor shooting range set up on the other side of one of the walls, with windows to see between the two rooms. 

“This place is – really big,” Brooklyn finally says, running her hands over the weights on the rack.

“Yeah, well, as we might have already said, Tony really doesn’t know how to keep it simple.”

“You can say that again.”

The Avengers start to trickle into the gym as Brooklyn still marvels over everything. When Tony finally comes in, Brooklyn joins everyone else to figure out what she’ll be doing. 

“So what’s the plan?” she asks.

Tony points over to the weights. “How about you just try and lift some weights? You should be able to lift a lot; I don’t think I tested its weight capacity when designing it though.”

Some of the Avengers break off to do different things in the room, but Tony, Brooklyn, and Bucky all stay together as they walk to the weight benches. Brooklyn sits down on one and starts to do reps with only her metal arm, adding more and more weight every few reps.

“Okay, I think that’s good,” Tony says once they’ve reached the max amount of weight the bar can hold. “You might not be able to lift much more than that with your metal arm, but with both arms, you shouldn’t have issues with most things. Let’s move on then!”

Tony leads them into the shooting range, where Natasha has set up a handful of guns already.

“One step ahead of me, I see,” Tony says to her, and she rolls her eyes.

“We’re going to have you test shooting a few different guns; the targets will switch automatically. If it’s a gun that you can hold single-handedly, we want you to test both hands.” She points to the table in front of her. “There are two clips for those.”

Brooklyn nods and goes to pick one up, but stops when Bucky sets his hand on hers. She looks up at him, and he says, “If you feel uncomfortable with this, you can stop. No one is forcing you to continue all the way through, okay?”

Brooklyn nods. “Yeah.” Bucky removes his hand and Brooklyn picks up the first handgun. 

She shoots her way through clip after clip, gun after gun, until she's gone through all of them. Tony brings all the targets up for everyone to see, and every single shot hit the very center of the bullseye.

Tony whistles. “You have one hell of a shot.”

She shrugs. “Guns were never really my strong suit.”

Tony’s eyes grow wide. “You – Your shot is that good, and you say it’s not even your strong suit? If guns aren’t, then what is?”

“Knives.” She pauses to think, and then says, “Но обычно мне приходится убивать чем-то другим.”

“Тебе больше не придется убивать, Би. Не волнуйся,” Bucky says, trying to soothe Brooklyn. 

“Если только ты не хочешь, конечно.” Natasha winks and walks out of the room. 

“You guys do know I can’t speak Russian, or do I need to remind you for the millionth time?”

Bucky glares at Tony. “We were talking in Russian because the conversation did not concern you, and you listen in on everything.”

“That is true. Well, we might as well move on to something else while we’re here, right?” He turns around and walks back into the gym, yelling, “Thor! Steve! I need your help!”

Brooklyn walks back into the center of the mats to look around the gym again. She starts watching Tony instruct Thor and Steve to move something heavy into the room, when she turns around suddenly and throws her hand up, catching the arrow in mid-air.

There’s a low whistle from across the room. “Wow, I didn’t think what Nat was saying was true.”

Brooklyn looks up at the rock climbing wall, towards the voice, to see Clint sitting on one of the ledges with his bow and arrow. Somehow, Natasha is also sitting there with them, even though it shouldn’t be able to fit both of them.

Brooklyn walks over to the wall and calls up, “What, you didn’t think I could catch an arrow? Believe me; I have really fast reflexes.”

Clint shrugs. “Fast reflexes is one thing. Being able to catch an arrow mid-air? That’s a feat not many people can do. That’s why I made sure that arrow would just go straight past your head if you didn’t catch it.”

Brooklyn rolls her eyes and drops the arrow on the ground, being kind enough not to break it, but not wanting to return it to him either. 

 

“I would have broken it,” Bucky says, having joined Brooklyn by the rock wall. “I have, actually. He just likes to shoot arrows at people and see if he can annoy them. Sometimes he even pulls out his foam arrows so he can hit people with them.”

“This is just a regular occurrence with him?”

Bucky nods, an unimpressed look on his face. “Yeah, you should ask Tony about the time he made Clint plunger arrows and then subsequently broke them all.”

“Hey, Brooklyn, do you have a second?”

She turns around to see Bruce has come into the gym. “Yeah, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, everything is fine. I just, wanted you to know – Your brain scans were sent to some professionals, and they looked over them. It seems like whatever they did to you wasn’t the same as what they did to Bucky. I’d explain more, but it might just be easier to show you. Do you think you could come down to the lab tomorrow? Both of you?”

Brooklyn nods. “Yeah, sure, as long as you’re okay with it Bucky.”

Bucky nods. “Of course.”

Tony calls from the other side of the room, “Okay, we’re ready!”

Everyone but Clint and Natasha come to crowd around Tony and find out what is going on.

“I have been informed by our wonderful lab rat today that guns are not her strong suit, and that she is better with knives. So, I had Steve and Thor pull out the ballistic dummies over there.” He points to them, and everyone looks.

“So what are you gonna do,” Sam asks, “Just have her stand there and throw knives at them?”

Tony nods. “Yep. Brooklyn, I have pulled a few sets of throwing knives off of the shelves, I want you to go over there and do whatever you want with throwing them. I don’t care; I just want to see your accuracy. Go for kill shots.”

“That, I can do. Make sure everyone stands back though, I don’t want to hurt someone accidentally.”

Tony’s solution to that is to have glass walls appear from seemingly nowhere for everyone to stand behind and watch. The dummies have been set up in a wide circle, and there’s a small table in the middle with the throwing knives set on top of it.

Brooklyn walks over to the table and picks up a knife, looking it over. She picks up another one and closes her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she opens her eyes again and starts to throw the knives. She doesn’t just stand there and aim at the dummies; she pretends they are fighting her, so she has to dodge fake projectiles. She pulls the knives from the table one after the other, landing knife after knife in the dummies.

As she is about to throw one of the last knives, her vision flashes. The dummy is no more, replaced by a faceless man. The knife gets thrown at him, and it lands in his heart, killing him.

Brooklyn falls to the ground and the last knife drops from her hand and sticks into the mat below her.

Steve and Bucky notice what happened immediately, being able to recognize when a flashback occurs from all the times Bucky has had them.

Tony doesn’t notice at first, saying, “Damn, that’s every single knife that she threw in a kill spot. She wasn’t even just throwing them straight on, either.” He doesn’t notice until he sees Steve and Bucky running around the other side of the glass and looks back to Brooklyn.

Bucky reaches her first, kneeling next to her and getting rid of the knife. Steve stands behind him, ready to help if needed.

“B?” Bucky asks, slowly moving his hands out towards her. “B, can you hear me?”

She doesn’t respond, instead looking off into the distance with wide eyes. Bucky puts one of his hands on hers, and nothing happens.

“B, I need you to tell me where you are.”

A few seconds of silence, and then in a shaky voice, “Avengers Tower.”

Bucky nods and places his other hand on her opposite shoulder, gently turning her to face him. “That’s right. You’re safe here, okay? There’s nothing here to hurt you.”

Natasha and Clint make it over to the group after climbing back down from the wall, and Natasha starts to herd everyone out of the gym, including Steve. Bucky hears someone whisper, “We’ll go order the pizza now,” but he wasn’t sure who said it.

Brooklyn’s eyes slowly start to focus back on Bucky, pulling herself out of what she had been seeing. Her hand moves and Bucky lets go, only to have the same hands wrap themselves around his abdomen. Brooklyn pulls him close in a hug, and Bucky wraps his arms back around her, settling one of his hands on the back of her head for comfort. 

They sit like that for a while, Brooklyn quivering against Bucky. Neither of them say anything, but neither of them have to, each other’s presence is enough for them.

Brooklyn finally stops quivering, and she holds onto Bucky for a few more seconds before starting to pull away. Bucky lets go of her and looks at her when she finally pulls away. He can only see sadness in her eyes, a look he frequently finds himself wearing.

Bucky stands and extends his hand. “Let’s go get some food; I’m sure you’re starving. We did accidentally skip lunch after all.”

Brooklyn looks up at Bucky and then takes his hand, letting him pull her up off of the floor. The elevator ride up to the common room is silent, and Bucky shuffles in awkwardly before Brooklyn after he realizes they had been holding hands the whole time. 

“Perfect timing, food just got here,” Natasha says when she sees them enter the room.

“We would have saved you some if you weren’t here,” Steve says, “And I would have made sure it wasn’t one of the pineapple ones.”

“You mean there were multiple pineapple pizzas bought?” responds Bucky.

“Yeah, Steve insisted that Thor also likes it, but whatever,” Tony says. “Thor will eat anything you throw at him.”

“Tis true!” responds Thor, “I will never decline food, no matter what toppings adorn it!”

Bucky shakes his head and opens a few pizza boxes to look at the options, finally pulling a bacon one out of the pile and taking it for himself. Brooklyn does the same, taking a pepperoni pizza from the stack.

Conversations continue like usual throughout the room, and Bucky does his best to try and include Brooklyn in some of them, but it seems she is content with just eating her pizza in silence. 

Once she’s finished eating, Bucky turns to her and says in a low voice, “Hey, if you don’t want to be here anymore, that’s okay. We can go downstairs if you want to before Thor gets into another really long story.”

Brooklyn nods her head and replies in a similar quiet voice, “I think I’m just going to go to bed.”

“Do you want me to come down with you?”

She hesitates but then nods her head again. “Please?”

Bucky nods and looks over at Steve. When Steve sees him, Bucky motions to Brooklyn and himself and then points towards the elevator. Steve nods in understanding. Bucky then stands, and Brooklyn follows, leaving quietly without anyone commenting on them leaving.

When they reach their floor, Bucky stops Brooklyn outside of her room. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to come and get me, okay?”

She nods. “Thanks. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, B.” Bucky walks back to his room. He changes into pajamas but doesn’t think he can go to sleep yet, so he pulls a book off of his bookshelf and sits in bed with it.

After a while of reading, there’s a soft knock on the door. “Come in,” Bucky says, and Brooklyn shuffles into the room.

“I – I don’t want to be alone right now,” she mutters quietly, and Bucky gives her a soft smile of understanding.

He nods and pats the bed next to him, offering to let her stay. Brooklyn comes in and closes the door behind her, and then slowly moves around the bed, climbing in next to Bucky.

After a few seconds of silence, she says, “Thanks.”

“Of course.” Bucky looks up from his book to look over at her. “Did you want to talk about it?”

She shakes her head, so Bucky lets it drop. He continues to read, and after a few minutes he looks back over to Brooklyn and sees that she fell asleep. Bucky smiles and sets the book down on the table next to him, and then turns off the lamp. He re-adjusts himself slowly so that he doesn’t wake Brooklyn, and then falls asleep himself a few minutes later.


	8. Day Twenty

Brooklyn starts to spend a lot of nights in Bucky’s room, not wanting to be alone. Bucky lets her, understanding that when you are alone, the nightmares seem a lot worse. 

Bucky wakes up and quietly slips out of the bedroom without waking Brooklyn up, glad she finally got some sleep after a couple of rough nightmares. He walks into the kitchen and coffee is already finished, with a note from Steve saying he’s out on a run. Bucky takes a mug of coffee and then throws a bagel into the toaster.

Brooklyn comes out of the room not long after and pulls a box of pop tarts out of the cabinet. Thor introduced her to them, and she has to admit they are pretty good.

“Maybe I should tell everyone,” Brooklyn says between bites, still half asleep.

“Why do you think that?” Bucky says, pushing towards her a mug of coffee.

“Well, Bruce already knows something is up after the brain scans.”

Jarvis cuts in, “Mr. Stark is also starting to notice an anomaly, though he has not started looking into it just yet.”

Bucky nods, thinking. “It’s up to you, B. If you want to tell everyone, then we can get the group together and tell everyone, okay?”

She nods and takes a sip of her coffee. The elevator door opens, and Steve walks back in. “It’s a nice day out today, maybe we should see about trying to go outside?”

Brooklyn hasn’t left the tower yet, afraid of what might happen on the crowded streets. The only time she had been outside was up on the deck, sitting in the chairs.

She shrugs, and Steve takes it, at least it wasn’t a flat out no. He pulls a box of cereal out of a cabinet for breakfast and goes to grab a bowl when an alarm starts to blare.

Brooklyn looks around at the flashing lights and loud noise, confused, so Steve says, “There’s an issue somewhere that we need to take care of. It’s just alerting us to get ready and head up to the common area as quickly as possible.”

Steve quickly goes back to his room to change into his hero costume, and Bucky sighs. “I guess I should suit up too; they might need me. It might be best if you stay in the tower for now though, but if you want to change and come up to the common room with us to hear what's going on, you’re welcome to.” He leaves and goes to grab as many weapons as he can carry.

Brooklyn changes as well and meets Steve and Bucky in the hallway, taking the elevator up to the common room together.

They step out to see everyone else gathered around some screens, looking over something. The circle expands, letting the three in so they can see what’s going on.

“What the hell is that?” Bucky asks, looking over the live video feed.

“I believe they are giant robotic bugs,” answers Tony. “Some of them can fly, some can’t. The plan is that Sam, Thor, and I will try to take the flying ones into the sky and off of the streets. Steve, Hulk, and Natasha will be on the ground fighting the ones down there, and Clint and Bucky, we need you up high, help both sides out.”

Everyone nods in agreement, and Tony passes out earpieces. Brooklyn gets one as well.

“I thought you should have one too, that way you can hear what’s going on. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be back outside just yet if you even want to, but I can set up some screens here if you want so that you can watch what’s going on.”

Brooklyn nods. “Thank you.”

Tony quickly sets up the screens to a few different street cameras and also includes the feed from his helmet and Sam’s goggles. They then all leave, going out into the streets below. 

Brooklyn sits on the couch and watches as the team starts to fight the bugs, taking them out one by one. They seem to keep coming through, without a stop in sight.

“Damn bugs,” Bucky keeps muttering in the comms as he shoots at them from a nearby building. 

Tony and Sam are talking strategy on how to get rid of the flying ones faster. Steve and Natasha are talking to each other too, working together. Clint keeps calling out stray bugs that are about to sneak up on someone.

Then something red and blue flashes past one of the cameras. 

“What was that?” Brooklyn asks Jarvis, watching as some sort of white rope attaches itself to one of the bugs and pulls it off screen.

“I believe that is Mr. Parker. His codename is Spider-Man.” Jarvis answers.

Brooklyn watches as he throws himself into the middle of the fight on the ground.

“Kid, what are you doing here?” Tony asks.

Peter replies through the comms in his suit, “I didn’t have school today, and heard all the noise out here. I couldn’t stay away.”

“Kid? How old is he?” Brooklyn asks, now sitting on the edge of the couch.

“Mr. Parker is in high school, and is sixteen.”

Brooklyn mutters to herself, “He’s just a kid, he shouldn’t be out there.” She continues to watch the fight and watches as the bugs keep coming, and each new one gets closer and closer to harming Peter.

She stands abruptly, unable to sit still any longer. She takes the elevator back down so she can go to her bedroom. Opening the closet, she finds the thing she had been hiding from Bucky. Someone found her suit and put it in her closet. She takes it out and puts it on, noting how it is almost identical to the one Bucky is wearing. The only difference is his is all black, while hers is mostly dark green with a few yellow spots. 

Grabbing a few weapons she managed to hide in her room, she takes the elevator all the way down and then exits the tower.

It isn’t hard to find where everyone else is. The fight wasn't that far from the tower to begin with, and even if she couldn’t hear them, she could still see Tony, Sam, and Thor flying around in the air with the swarm of bugs. 

She comes in from a side street, close to Peter but still quite a ways away from Steve, Natasha, and the Hulk. She pulls a knife out and throws it into the intersection, landing it in the control panels of a bug that was about to attack Peter.

“What was that!” Peter says, not having seen Brooklyn yet.

“What was what?” Tony asks, concerned.

“Something just flew by and killed one of these bugs, and no it wasn’t a shield this time.” He turns to fight another bug and finally notices Brooklyn fighting off one of the bugs. “Who are you?!” He yells to her.

Bucky looks over to where Peter is to try and help him out. “B?” he says, immediately spotting her. “What are you doing here?”

“He’s too young,” she responds, finding the bugs weak spot and killing it with a shot from her gun, “he shouldn’t be out here.”

“So you guys know her?” Peter asks, trying to tie up one of the bugs with his webs. 

“Yes, Peter, we’ll do introductions later. Right now, we still have a seemingly endless army of giant robot bugs to deal with,” says Steve, killing another robot.

Brooklyn has officially joined in on the fight on the ground now, sticking close to Peter and protecting him the best that she can. 

The robots keep coming, and everyone is starting to lose stamina.

“If anyone is hiding any tricks up their sleeves, now would be a really good time to use it!” Tony calls out through the comms.

Brooklyn looks over to Bucky from her position, and he nods. She runs over to the closest building and climbs up to the top. The skies are starting to turn gray, and the wind is picking up.

“Thor, what’s the storm for?” Sam asks, fighting through the wind to get to the bugs.

“It’s not Thor,” says Bucky. “You guys might want to land.”

“If it’s not Thor, then who is it?” says Steve, and thunder rolls ominously in the distance.

The three in the air land, and the bugs that had been flying start to come back down to the ground. Lightning flashes and everyone’s eyes move to Brooklyn as she jumps off of the building into the sea of robots below, the air crackling around her. She lands on top of a robot and punches it, and suddenly all of the robots on the ground light up, bright arcs of electricity sparking between robot to robot. They start to collapse, and then she looks up towards the bugs in the sky. The wind grows cold, and the bugs shells collect frost, causing them to fall to the ground even faster. They all slam into the ground or buildings, crumpling under the force, and even destroying the top few floors of a handful of buildings.

The sky starts to clear again, and everyone but Bucky and Natasha stare at Brooklyn in shock. Brooklyn, Bucky, and Natasha quickly look around the area to make sure all the robots have been taken care of.

“What the fuck was that?” Tony says, finally snapping out of his shock.

“We can talk about this later,” Bucky says, climbing down from the building. “Let’s get back to the tower first.”

It takes a surprisingly short amount of time for everyone to get back to the tower. Everyone is eager to find out what Brooklyn just did. 

Everyone sits down in the common room, mostly still in their gear. Tony is completely out of his suit, Sam took his goggles and wing pack off, Steve took his helmet off, and Peter took his mask off, but everything else was still on. 

Brooklyn sits down next to Bucky, and everyone looks to her expectantly. Bucky offers her a small smile of encouragement. 

“I was taken by Hydra when I was young. I don’t remember why. All I know is that they killed my parents and then took me. I was – well, that depends. You could either find me cowering in the corner of one of their cells, or the labs strapped to one of their tables.”

She takes a deep breath before continuing. “I was one of the many they experimented on. Some of the things included in their testing was their version of the super soldier serum, as well as whatever it was that gave me my powers.”

“So what is it you can do?” Bruce asks, not entirely sure what happened from being the Hulk. 

“Weather, to keep it simple. Storms are the basic thing; it’s easy to form them. With storms comes lightning, rain, and tornadoes so that I can do too. Cold would be the next easiest thing to do, because you can get it from a storm. With cold, comes ice, snow, hail, the works. The hardest to do is heat because that doesn’t have anything associated with it. Just heat.” Her arm twitches, and then her fingers spasm. 

“I can fix that,” Tony says immediately. “I don’t think I put enough electricity resistance into it. Let me go grab some tools.”

Tony gets up and leaves, which breaks the sort of trance everyone was in, and everyone else starts to move around. Peter stands up and walks over. 

“Hey, I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Peter.” He extends his hand, and Brooklyn shakes it.

“Brooklyn.”

“Thanks for helping me out back there, with all the bugs.”

Bucky interrupts to ask, “Yeah, what was up with that?”

Brooklyn shakes her head. “You’re too young. You shouldn’t be out here.”

Peter waves it off. “I hear that all the time. Don’t worry about it. I’m not gonna stop.” He turns away and walks into the kitchen. 

Steve comes up over to Bucky and raises an eyebrow. “Did you know about this already?”

Bucky nods. “Of course I did.”

“But you didn’t say anything because you wanted her to be comfortable and tell us herself.”

Bucky nods again.

Tony comes back in from the elevator with a toolbox. “Come on into the kitchen, tempest. We can work on your arm easier on one of the stools.”

Brooklyn stands and follows Tony into the kitchen. “Tempest?” She sits on one of the stools.

Tony shrugs. “You said so yourself that your powers are, to put it simply, weather, right? So, that means I can now give you nicknames using any weather word.”

Tony sits down on a stool to the right of Brooklyn and starts to take some of the covering of the arm off. Peter comes over from the fridge with a box of pizza leftovers in his hands, watching Tony.

“That’s really cool,” Peter says around a mouthful of pizza. “I had been wondering what one of those arms looks like on the inside.”

“I can show you the blueprints later if you want,” Tony says while sticking different tools into Brooklyn’s arm, trying to fix it.

“Really?” Peter says. “I’d like that. Thanks!” He then leaves the kitchen.

Tony makes a few more adjustments before saying, “Okay, that should do it.” He puts everything back together and then starts to put his tools away. “If it starts twitching again, let me know because it’ll most likely take a few adjustments until I can get it to the proper resistance.”

Bruce comes into the room. “Why did they make your first arm a metal arm anyways? Wouldn’t all forms of electricity short circuit it?”

Brooklyn shrugs. “I don’t think they cared about whether or not it would short circuit; I think they more so cared about the fact that it would conduct the electricity a lot better than any other material they were thinking of, meaning more lightning and more voltage to kill more people and to kill them faster.”

Bruce nods slowly. “Oh.” He regrets bringing the question up.

Bucky steps into the kitchen. “If you’re done, B, Steve disappeared a while ago saying he was going to make us something special for dinner. I don’t know what it is, but it’s probably almost done. You ready to head back down?”

“Yeah, we just finished for now. Tony said I might have to get it adjusted again a few more times before we can find the right setting for it.”

Bucky nods. “Okay. Makes sense.”

Brooklyn stands, and they walk over to the elevator together, taking it back down to their floor. When the elevator door opens, they are greeted with the smell of garlic bread.

Steve greets them when they walk into the kitchen. “Hey guys, food is almost done.”

They sit down at the table and Brooklyn says, “It smells really good. What is it?”

“What you smell is probably the garlic bread. It’s just toasted bread with butter and garlic. There are not many people who don’t like it. But that’s just the side; the main dish is what is called baked ziti.”

“That sounds strange,” Brooklyn says, furrowing her eyebrows.

Bucky responds with, “It’s just cooked noodles mixed with sauce and cheese, then put in a pan topped with another cheese, and then put in the oven to bake and melt all the cheese.”

Brooklyn nods. “I do like cheese, so I guess I should like this.”

When it comes out of the oven, Steve sets it on the counter to cool off a little while he gets the plates and utensils. He pulls the garlic bread out next and starts to fill the three plates up.

Needless to say, Brooklyn enjoys everything that’s on her plate. She clears her plate quickly, and her second plate disappears almost as fast.

“Sorry,” she says as she grabs a third serving of garlic bread, “I tend to be hungry after doing a lot of big storms and such.”

“Don’t apologize for being hungry,” Steve says, “There’s always more food here.”

She smiles at him. “Thanks.”

Once everyone is finished eating, the three of them clean up together, and Brooklyn yawns.

“Rough day, huh?” Bucky teases, and she rolls her eyes.

“I’m going to head to bed then, it’s probably just from me not having used my powers fully like that in a while.”

“Okay. Goodnight, B.”

“Goodnight, Bucky.” She walks out of the kitchen and goes into her own bedroom, okay to be alone tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHH we finally reached what I've been foreshadowing since chapter one!! If you've been taking the time to translate any of the Russian, this is what those sections have been referring to. While this chapter was fun, I'm super excited for next week! Thanks for all of your comments and kudos, it means a lot!


	9. Day Twenty-Seven

Steve and Bucky are the first ones in the kitchen in the morning. Bucky sits at the counter and nurses a cup of coffee. Steve stands at the stove and works on frying bacon.

Brooklyn shuffles into the kitchen, her hair having been messily put up in a bun, and a robe haphazardly thrown on.

“Bucky?” she says, and he turns to look at her. 

“You okay, B?” he asks, concerned. 

“You-you did it,” she says, sitting down next to him. “You remembered your name.”

Bucky smiles at her. “Yeah. Yeah, I did. Not without help, of course.”

They look at each other for a few seconds, and Bucky is about to turn away, but before he can, Brooklyn leans in and presses a kiss against his lips. It’s very light, but it still makes Bucky freeze. Brooklyn pulls away a very short time later but doesn’t get very far. Bucky’s hand is already behind her head, pulling her back in. She can feel his smile against her lips as he kisses her back, and she can’t help but smile either. 

Steve, not having heard anything from the pair for a bit, turns around to make sure everything is okay, only to find the two of them kissing, each of them with a hand tangled in the other’s hair.

He raises an eyebrow and says, “Should I leave you guys alone? You could have asked.”

Bucky and Brooklyn jump apart, and Brooklyn looks a little red. Steve smiles.

“Hey, I’m not saying I’m against it, I’d just like to know if I’ve been missing this somehow," he says, gesturing to the two of them by making circles with the spatula.

Brooklyn looks over to Bucky, and he nods, gesturing for her to speak.

“I guess that depends on how you look at it,” she says and lets Steve turn the pan on the oven off before continuing. “You could officially say right now, or, you could also say back before I became a Winter Soldier.”

A look of recognition flashes in Steve’s eyes, and he looks over to Bucky. “Oh, this is what you didn't want to say in front of her.”

Bucky smiles sheepishly and takes another drink of his coffee in response. 

Steve turns his attention back to Brooklyn. “So, what happened back then?”

“Well, as you already know, Hydra used me as a lab rat. Once they realized they gave me powers, they started forcing me into missions.” She shakes her head. “I remember the beginning okay, but it gets blurry after that.”

Steve nods. “It’s okay, just say what you’ve got.”

“They made me Bucky’s handler. Had us do a lot of missions together. I hated it. I hated all of it. But I was scared of what might happen to me if I didn’t listen. Until the last mission, we had together. We were told to kill someone with no witnesses. We thought the area was clear. Well, it was, at first. Just as we killed the guy, a–a school bus drove by.” A stray tear runs down Brooklyn’s face. “They all witnessed it. I–I had to kill them. I used lightning and electrocuted the bus.”

Bucky puts his hand on top of Brooklyn’s and squeezes it, seeing how hard this particular moment hit her. 

She takes a deep breath and continues. “I couldn’t do it anymore. I took Bucky, and we ran. I don’t remember much after that, besides when he – kissed me. And then Hydra broke into the house before I could respond.”

Steve smiles. “So this was your response?”

Brooklyn smiles too. “Yeah.”

Bucky squeezes her hand again. She looks over at him, and he smiles, and then he pulls her in for another kiss.

Steve shakes his head and turns back around to the stove. “Do you want eggs with your bacon?” he asks, turning the pan back on. 

“Sure,” Brooklyn says, moving her hand to intertwine her fingers with Buckys. 

“Of course,” Bucky replies. “As long as there’s more bacon than egg on my plate.”

Steve rolls his eyes and finishes cooking breakfast. They eat in silence, but Bucky can’t do anything to wipe the stupid grin off of his face. When everyone finishes eating, Brooklyn collects the plates to start cleaning up.

“You still up to going outside today?” Bucky asks her, and she nods.

“It’s just going to be the three of us, right?” She doesn’t want anyone else to see if she has a breakdown while outside. 

Steve says, “I can leave you two alone if you want.”

“No, no, we’re not going to kick you out. I–I’d prefer if you did come, actually.”

“Any particular reason for that?” Bucky asks, curious.

She shrugs. “Well, if I do have an issue while we’re outside, then I’ve got one person to keep an eye on me, and one person to make sure people stay away.” She finishes the dishes and then goes to get dressed. 

She puts on a long sleeve shirt and puts a glove on her right hand, mirroring what Bucky does when he goes outside. Steve told her him and Bucky would be wearing baseball caps and sunglasses for their disguise, so she puts her own on as well, as to not stick out among the group. 

“Ready to go?” Bucky asks when she comes back out into the living room.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

The three of them take the elevator down to the lobby and exit the building, blending in with the other pedestrians quickly. They have to walk single file in the congested streets near the tower until they can get to a quieter part of the city. Steve, being the tallest, leads the group, parting the way for Brooklyn and Bucky behind him.

Brooklyn does her best to stay calm, going over some breathing patterns Sam had taught her after a particularly nasty nightmare. From behind, Bucky can tell she’s close to breaking and freaking out.

He reaches behind her with his right hand until he finds Brooklyn’s left hand, tangling his warm fingers with hers. She grips it tightly, and Bucky can see her breathing is going back to normal faster. He keeps a hold of her until they can finally stand side by side when he lets go just to readjust their hands. 

Steve looks back at the two of them and shakes his head, smiling at their intertwined hands. “You guys are out here making me feel like a third wheel.”

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Maybe we just need to get you a date then. I’m sure if you asked the next person to walk by us, they would gladly stop whatever they were doing to hold your hand as we walk around.”

“Ah, yes, because who wouldn’t want to get fired over not going to work to walk around the city holding Steve Roger’s hand.”

“Hey,” Brooklyn cuts in, “If you want, Bucky and I still have another hand each.” She winks at him, and Bucky snorts. 

“Yeah, Stevie, come hold my hand!” He holds it out in front of him for Steve to grab.

“Hah hah,” says Steve, who then changes the subject. “So, anywhere we want to actually go today, or do we just want to walk around?”

Brooklyn says, “Maybe a park? Then we can probably walk around easier, and continue to make fun of you.”

Steve covers his eyes with his hand. “God, now there’s two of you.”

Bucky smiles. ‘What can I say, we finish each others…”

“Sandwiches,” Brooklyn finishes, and then they start to giggle. Tony made them watch Frozen recently after he found out Brooklyn can control things like snow and ice. 

Steve audibly sighs and leads the group over to Central Park. 

“Wow,” Brooklyn remarks, looking up at the trees that have started to change colors. 

“Yeah, it sure does get pretty around here in the fall,” Steve answers, looking up at the leaves as well.

They walk around the park in silence for a while, admiring the view. “Thanks for convincing me to get out here,” Brooklyn says to both Steve and Bucky after a while. “Though the crowds are still a little tough.”

“Which is perfectly okay. No one expects you to be perfectly okay with all the crowds. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming, even for me,” says Steve. 

“Anyone up for lunch?” Bucky asks.

They leave the park and find a little outdoor cafe for lunch. They order enough food for nine people and silently laugh to each other as they watch all the staff's shocked expressions because of how fast all the food is disappearing, for only three people eating it.

After they pay, they decide to walk around the city a little longer, Steve and Bucky pointing out places they remember being around when they were kids. When the sun starts to set, they head back for the tower.

“Good evening,” says Jarvis when they finally are back inside. “Mr. Stark has requested the three of you in the common room.”

“Hey, there they are!” Tony says when they exit the elevator. “Where were you guys?”

“We were out on a walk,” replies Steve, “Trying to get Brooklyn back outside again for things other than trying to protect Peter.”

“Speak of the devil,” Tony says, “We wanted to know if you guys want to watch some more movies? Peter’s staying here for the weekend as part of his ‘internship’, so we’re trying to keep him out of trouble.”

“I can stay out of trouble just fine by myself, Mr. Stark,” Peter says as he walks into the room on the ceiling, mouth full of food. 

Tony looks up at him. “Peter, we talked about this.”

Peter looks confused for a second and then realizes what he meant. “Oh!” he says, flipping down from the ceiling onto the ground. “Sorry.”

“What movie did you want to watch, Peter?” Bucky asks, and he watches as Peter’s eyes grow wide when he sees Brooklyn. 

“Oh my god, you haven’t seen Star Wars yet have you?”

Brooklyn shakes her head. “I don’t think I’ve heard of it.”

Tony, shocked, says, “You’re right, she doesn’t know about –”

“Shhhh!” Peter says, cutting Tony's spoiler off. “You were about to spoil that for the one person in the world who doesn’t know. You can’t do that!”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Tony apologizes. “Shall we go watch that then?”

“Did I get an A on my last chemistry exam?” Peter says as if that was obvious. When he sees everyone’s confused looks, he says, “That’s a yes.”

“Good job, kid,” Tony says, patting him on the shoulder. “Jarvis, sound the call for everyone to meet in the theater.”

“Right away sir.”

The five of them pack into the elevator and take it down to the private theater that Tony built in the tower. 

“What are we watching?” Clint asks when he sees Tony, already popping popcorn for everyone. He offers Brooklyn a bowl he’s already salted and buttered, and she takes it with her over to her seat.

“Pete realized that Cyclone over there hasn’t seen Star Wars yet. So, of course, Peter wants to be here as we show her.”

“Are these your favorite movies?” Natasha asks Peter.

“Yeah, probably. Though, I don’t know if I can pick just one. New Hope is a good one, as well as the rest of the original trilogy. And even though most people aren’t very fond of the prequels, they did have some great memes come out of them.”

“Memes?” asks Brooklyn, and Bucky shakes his head.

“It’s better not to ask. Some kind of young person thing,” answers Bucky, who sits next to her.

Steve opts for the other side of Bucky to let Peter sit next to Brooklyn, because he knows Peter will want to sit next to her and see her reactions to everything. Unfortunately for her, that also means she’ll be the one Peter is constantly talking to about random Star Wars trivia, but he doesn’t have to let her know about that. 

Jarvis starts the movie once everyone is settled down and ready, and almost immediately Peter starts listing a bunch of facts. He says it quiet enough so that he believes only Brooklyn can hear him, but because of the serum, Steve and Bucky can hear him too.

Brooklyn doesn’t seem to mind, though, giving both Peter and the movie equal attention, and when it finally ends, Peter seems to be practically bouncing out of his seat. 

“So, what did you think? Did you like it?” Peter says as he turns to look at Brooklyn.

She looks at Peter with a smile. “I did. I especially liked your commentary; it was very thorough.”

Peter beams. “Thanks! Most people tell me to shut up during the middle of the movie, it’s nice to see someone will actually listen.”

“Who has done that?” She says, with a look in her eyes as if she’s going to hurt someone.

Peter catches this and says, “No, no, it’s okay. Just some friends of mine. No one you would know. They didn’t really mean it anyway, more so as a joke.”

Bucky yawns. “Maybe we should start heading downstairs; we should get some sleep. I think I had enough popcorn to skip dinner for tonight.”

Tony nods. “Yeah, kid, you should get to bed. Don’t want you staying up too late, or then you won’t be able to focus in class Monday.”

“Okay, okay, Mr. Stark. Can we watch the next movie tomorrow?”

Tony looks over to Brooklyn to ask and she smiles, answering with a “Sure” before sticking her hand out and ruffling Peter’s hair.

Bucky and Brooklyn say goodnight to everyone and then split ways once they are back on their floor, but it’s not long before Brooklyn has changed and come back over into Bucky’s room.

She climbs into the bed next to him and says, “So you’ve been letting me sleep here for how long now, knowing this whole time?”

Bucky looks embarrassed. “I wanted to wait for you to remember. If there’s one thing I know isn’t fun is when someone tells you a memory of the two of you when you don’t want it. Steve’s gotten better at that though, but in the beginning, it was rough.”

Brooklyn props herself up on her arms and leans into Bucky to kiss him. “Goodnight,” she whispers onto his lips, and then she lays back down on the bed next to him.

Bucky turns the lamp off next to the bed and then lays on his side, scooting up against Brooklyn and wrapping his arms around her. “Goodnight, B” he whispers into her hair, and the two quickly fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	10. Day Thirty-Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: flashback with blood mentions, kinda violent

The alarm starts to go off in the morning, and Brooklyn groans. She rolls over and reaches over Bucky, laying across his chest and roaming the table with her hand until she finds the alarm clock. She feels for the button to turn it off but can’t find it, so she smashes the clock instead, and then stays laying on Bucky with her arm hanging off of the bed. 

Bucky groans, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Did you break the alarm clock again?”

Brooklyn grunts in confirmation. “I don’t know why you insisted on getting up so early.”

“It’s training day. Steve will try to kill me if I don’t get up within the hour.”

“Well, Steve can kiss my ass. I want to sleep.” Brooklyn moves to lay her head next to Bucky’s, and he places a kiss on her cheek.

“I can leave you here if you want so you can sleep. We’re not going to force you to do training today, especially after what happened the last time we were down in the gym.”

Brooklyn hums in Bucky’s ear, thinking. “That was forever ago though. Besides, we’ll never know how it’ll go unless we go down there and try.”

There’s a knock on the door. “You two up?” Steve asks through the door.

“Unfortunately,” Brooklyn calls back, turning over onto her back. 

Steve opens the door slowly to give anyone time to stop him if they need to. Once the door is open, Steve sees Brooklyn splayed out on top of Bucky, and the broken pieces of the alarm clock scattered about. “Did you break another alarm clock?”

“Thanks so much, Captain Obvious, I didn’t realize that I did that.” Brooklyn rolls off of Bucky and stands up, stretching her arms up above her head to stretch out her back.

“Are you going to come to training today?” Steve asks, giving her the option on whether or not she wants to.

“Yeah, I just told Bucky I’d come. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should go change.” She walks past Steve and goes down the hall to her bedroom, where all of her clothes are still. 

Steve looks back to Bucky, who’s still in bed. “You getting up anytime soon or are you skipping breakfast again?”

Bucky waves his hand at Steve and says, “Yeah, yeah, I’m getting up. Get out of here, punk.”

Steve closes the door behind him and goes to the kitchen to make a quick breakfast for everyone. Brooklyn and Bucky join him not too long after, and Steve puts plates of food in front of them. 

“Eat up; we don’t want anyone passing out.”

Bucky groans. “That was one time Steve, give it a rest please.”

Steve puts on an innocent smile and then sits down with his own plate of food. “You two planning on telling anyone else soon, or are you still going to keep your relationship a secret?”

Brooklyn shrugs. “Pretty sure Nat knows already, so.”

“What makes you say that?” Bucky asks, reaching down the counter for the butter.

“You should see the way she’s been looking at me. She’s definitely caught on.”

“Well then, did you want to tell everyone, or just keep it to ourselves for a while longer?”

She shrugs again. “Not today, at least, cause then that would lead to story time, and I don’t feel like participating in story time today. No, that memory can stay away today.”

Bucky pouts and says, “All of that memory?”

Brooklyn rolls her eyes and pushes Bucky lightly. “Okay, the bad parts can stay away today.”

Bucky smiles and then gives Brooklyn a quick kiss on the cheek, but then goes back to eating, so Steve doesn’t get mad at him. Once everyone is done eating, Brooklyn picks up all the dishes and cleans up quickly, before they all pile in the elevator to go down to the gym.

When they get down there, Peter has already started training, swinging around in the rafters through the obstacle course Tony recently made for him. 

“Hey Ms. Brooklyn!” Peter calls from above, doing a flip and landing down next to her.

“Hey, Peter. How are you doing?”

“Well I had a Spanish test yesterday, and I don’t think I did that good on it, but other than that I’m good I guess.”

“Estoy seguro de que lo hiciste bien, chico.”

“Uhh… Thanks?” Peter answers, a little confused.

Bucky smiles. “We were Winter Soldiers, remember? We know a lot of different languages. We just use English and Russian the most because everyone knows English and no one else here knows Russian besides Nat.”

“Ah.” Peter looks back to Brooklyn. “If I need help then, can you help me with my Spanish homework?”

“Sí.” Brooklyn sticks out her hand and ruffles Peter’s hair, and he ducks to try and miss it, but she catches him anyways, and he relents.

Sighing, he responds, “Gracias.”

“Okay, everyone, let’s get to work!” Tony says as he comes into the gym, and the other Avenger’s scattered around the gym move to meet in the center of the room.

“What’s the plan today, Cap?” Clint asks, tightening an arrowhead onto an arrow. 

Steve answers with, “Today, we’ll do some team training, and then break off into individual or small groups. Capture the flag is our goal for today. I have the team split up in two, and we’re going to rotate between defensive and offensive. The teams are as follows. On my team, we have Bucky, Clint, and Natasha. On Tony’s team, we have Peter, Thor, and Brooklyn. We’re going offensive first; the flag will be at the top of the climbing wall. Bruce, as usual, will be the referee, to make sure everyone follows the rules.”

“What about Sam?” Clint asks, looking around for the man in question.

“He had to go visit his mother. Something important. I told him he could miss for today.”

Tony nods. “Okay, Peter, go put the flag up top, and then we can talk strategy.”

Steve and his team go into the gun range as Peter climbs up the wall. 

“Why’d they go in there?” Brooklyn asks, being the new one in this situation.

“Whoever is going offensive meets in there, so that those with enhanced hearing can’t overhear the other team,” Tony answers as he assembles his suit for the day around him.

Brooklyn nods. Once Peter places the flag, He jumps back down and lands with the rest of the team. 

“So what’s the plan, Mr. Stark?”

Tony smirks. “I have an idea. Just so you know, Brooklyn, we use non-lethal weapons, as well as Cap’s shield and Thor’s hammer for these games. You get hit by the shield twice; you’re out. You get hit by either four of Clint’s arrows, or one to your heart or head, you’re out. Natasha and Bucky use paintball guns, so the same thing as the arrows goes for them. You can have a choice. Only one kind of weapon per round though.” He points to the table next to Bruce, and Brooklyn sees that there’s a paintball gun or a box of non-lethal knives.

She picks up one of the knives. “How do these work?”

“I came up with them!” Peter says, a smile on his face. “I used some aluminum and some of my web formula. They will stick to whatever you throw them at, as long as you press the button on the handle first. If not, they’re just gonna fall to the ground.”

Brooklyn flips the knife over in her hand, and then slides it into her pocket, finding places to hold the rest of the knives as well, save the last one, which she holds in her hand. 

“Okay then, here’s the plan. Point Break, you keep an eye on the wall, try and knock anyone you can off of it. Pete, stay back, web them up, try and trap Steve’s shield so he’s defenseless. I will try and draw fire from Natasha and Bucky.” He then looks to Brooklyn. “Your powers are all game to use, stormy. So do me a favor, play around with the temperature and try to tire them out quickly. We have ten minutes to either down them all, or just keep them away from the flag.”

The group breaks and spreads out around the gym, waiting for the other team to come out. As they were talking Bruce set up obstacles all over the floor to provide some cover. Brooklyn hides behind one in the corner, and once everyone is hidden, Bruce pulls the other team out.

“Okay,” Bruce says, making sure everyone can hear him. “Let’s go over the rules. You get hit by the shield or Thor’s hammer twice; you’re out. You get hit by Clint, Bucky, Natasha, or Brooklyn four times; you’re out. If any of those four hit your heart or your head, you’re also out. If you get trapped by Peter’s webs, you are still in the game, meaning you can still get hit by other people. Your teammates can also cut you out of the webs if you are still in. We revised Tony’s situation now, so he needs to hit you six times for you to be out. I will keep track of Tony’s hits, so don’t worry about whether that was a hit or not, just get out when I tell you to. Offensive, you can win by taking the other team out, or by getting the flag. Defensive, you can win if you take the other team out or if the clock runs out. Okay, Jarvis, set a timer for ten minutes.”

“Of course. Timer starting in three, two, one…”

Once Jarvis says one, everyone jumps into action. Thor leaps over the barrier he was hiding behind and charges across the room. Tony starts to fly up in the air, dodging the paintballs shot at him. Peter ducks in and out of the obstacles, shooting webs at whoever he can.

Brooklyn peaks her head over the top of the obstacle she’s hiding behind to get a good idea of where the four from the other team are. She then ducks back down and focuses in, keeping the four on the opposing team in her mind's eye as she starts to turn up the heat.

“Is it always this hot in here?” Clint asks aloud, shooting an arrow in Peter’s direction before hiding back behind the box he’s at.

Bucky yells across the room, “It must be Brooklyn! Find her!”

Brooklyn rolls away from her obstacle just before Natasha leaps over it and shoots the empty air where she had been. With a knife in hand, Brooklyn slices at Natasha’s legs, which ends up knocking Natasha off balance, giving Brooklyn a chance to run away. She lost focus a little while she was fighting Natasha, so everything stopped heating up, but still stayed hot. She has a little time to spare before Bucky reaches her hiding spot, so she focuses and makes it a few degrees hotter before jumping over the obstacle and throwing a knife at Bucky, then running away. He manages to dodge the knife and lets off a shot towards Brooklyn, but she was expecting this and dives for the ground, spinning around and throwing another knife at Bucky all at the same time. He moves to dodge it but is partially unsuccessful – instead of hitting his chest, where she aimed, it hits his flesh shoulder and sticks there. 

“Clint, you’re out!” Bruce calls across the room.

Clint whines, “Why am I always out first?!”

“Maybe you just need to try harder, Legolas.” Tony is momentarily distracted by this, and paint splatters across the arc reactor.

“Tony, you’re out!”

Tony grumbles as he makes his way over to join Bruce and Clint. 

“Let’s change things up a bit, shall we?” Brooklyn mutters and changes her focus. The air starts to cool around her, and she focuses it on Steve, Natasha, and Bucky.

“I got his shield!” Peter exclaims, dodging bullets from Natasha and Bucky. 

Brooklyn takes the opportunity to spring up from the ground and pulls out another knife, throwing it across the room at Steve. She ducks back behind the boxes when Bucky starts to shoot at her.

“Steve! Out!” Bruce calls out, meaning the knife hit its target. The star on his chest is hard to miss. 

“Thor! The wall!” Brooklyn calls out, where Natasha is scaling quickly. 

Mjolnir flies through the air and Natasha dodges the first attempt at a hit, but it swings back through the air on it’s way to Thor and hits her, knocking her one hand loose. 

“Peter, that’s four. You’re out.” A paint-splattered Peter walks dejectedly over to the rest that have gotten out. 

Brooklyn continues to lower the temperature around Natasha and Bucky, and watches as Thor manages to hit Natasha with the hammer again. After the hammer connects with Natasha, bright yellow paint splatters over Thor’s face from Bucky.

“Natasha! Thor! Out! Three minutes left!”

Brooklyn crawls over to a new hiding place and pulls another knife out, listening for Bucky as she works on making the air colder. She keeps an eye on the wall to make sure Bucky doesn’t try to go for the flag, but she has a feeling that he’s going to go for getting her out.

“Bucky?” Steve calls from the sidelines, and Brooklyn spares a glance over there, seeing looks of concern on everyone's faces.

She peeks over the top of the box to see Bucky a few feet away, a faraway look in his eyes. Her eyes grow wide and she leaps up, rushing over to him.

“Oh my God, Bucky, did I make it too cold? I’m so sorry.” She stands in front of him and grabs his wrist, trying to help him come back to the present. “Bucky? Bucky, come back!”

Brooklyn stumbles back as a paintball splatters against her chest. An evil smirk starts to spread across Bucky’s face, and Brooklyn’s worry drops quickly to anger. 

“Brooklyn, out! Team Cap wins!”

Steve quickly restrains Brooklyn before she can start to attack Bucky, but she still manages to get a verbal attack out. “You son of a bitch! I thought I triggered a flashback! I was concerned for your wellbeing, and you just fucking shoot me like it's no big deal! What the fuck!”

Bruce clears his throat. “Okay, new rule. You’re not allowed to fake having a flashback so that you can win the game.”

“I can’t believe we have to even make that rule,” Steve says, letting Brooklyn go. He looks over to Bucky with a disappointed look, to which Bucky answers with a roll of his eyes. 

Brooklyn rolls her shoulders back a few times and then flips Bucky off, walking over to the rest of her team. She grabs all the knives she used on the way over and follows them into the gun range.

“What’s the plan, Tony?” Brooklyn asks, masking her anger.

“I’m not gonna hold you back if you want some revenge on Bucky, but I think you’re our best bet to get the flag. There’s not enough room for Thor to fly up there, but I could, and Peter could get there easily as well, so they’re probably going to focus on us. So, the three of us need to be a distraction so Brooklyn can get up there.”

“I’m good at distracting! I can definitely do that,” says Peter. 

“I know, kid. Brooklyn, get the flag by any means necessary.”

“Understood.” She pulls a knife out and flips it over in her hand, eying Bucky through the glass.

“Jarvis, remind me not to get on Brooklyn’s bad side.”

“Of course.”

The second round starts similarly to the first, with Thor charging at the other team and Tony starting to fly around.

“Hey, Cap!” Peter calls, taking Steve’s attention. “How do you control that shield? It always seems to come back to you, no matter how much it bounces around.”

Brooklyn crawls around, hiding behind the boxes, creeping towards the wall and Bucky at the same time. She ends up behind Bucky and springs up, trying to stab him. Bucky catches her arm with his and pulls, throwing her over his shoulder and onto her back. She rolls out of the way quickly as he lets go of her arm to shoot her. Paint splatters where she had just been, and she tries to swipe at Bucky’s legs. 

Bucky drops his gun and reveals that he pulled a knife off of Brooklyn, and she stands, getting ready to fight him hand to hand. They rush at each other, trying to stab each other while also dodging the other person. Brooklyn grabs Bucky’s arm and spins him around, and paint splatters across his lower back from Natasha’s gun. 

The pair are an even match for each other, neither one gaining on the other. Bucky switches the knife to his metal hand and Brooklyn sees an opening. She focuses a little and the air around her starts to crackle, and she strikes out at Bucky again. When her knife touches Bucky’s, it sends a jolt of electricity through it, temporarily disabling Bucky’s arm. She goes to hit his heart and he quickly blocks with his normal arm, but he missed her pulling another knife out with her other hand and she hits his forehead. 

“Bucky! Out!”

“Yeah!” Clint calls from across the room. “I wasn’t the first one! Oof!” Clint falls over after being hit by Thor’s hammer. 

“Clint, you’re out too.” 

“Aww, come on man.” Clint and Bucky walk over to the sidelines and Brooklyn ducks back under the boxes. She hides until she’s made it to the wall, and, making sure no one has seen her yet, starts to climb.

“Tony, that’s two. You’re out.”

Tony looks down at the floor, defeated, and joins Bucky and Clint on the sidelines. 

“Brooklyn’s on the wall!” Steve shouts, throwing his shield up towards her. Peter shoots a web at it and pulls it down to the floor, crashing hard.

“Huh, I guess it doesn’t always come back to you,” says Peter, covering it in webs to stick to the ground.

Brooklyn keeps an eye on the ground as she’s climbing, making sure no one’s going to hit her. She sees Steve and Peter fighting, and Thor is trying to distract Natasha. 

Natasha makes an opening in her fight and shoots a few paintballs in Brooklyn’s direction, causing Brooklyn to let go of one of the handles to dodge them. Dangling from one hand now with her back to the wall, she looks up to see she's almost there. Natasha gets free of Thor again and shoots some more at Brooklyn, and Brooklyn swings off of the handhold to the side, barely managing to grab another with her other hand as she flips back around. Now, facing the right way again, she climbs the rest of the wall quickly and picks the flag up.

“Game over!” Bruce calls out, and everyone stops fighting. “Team Iron Man got the flag. They win!”

Brooklyn throws her fist up in the air with the flag in it before setting it back down on the top of the wall and scaling back down.

“What do you say, Cap,” Tony says as everyone comes back together again. “One more round to break the tie?”

Steve nods. “Okay, you guys are on defensive again.”

The other team goes back out into the shooting range and Tony calls the other three to attention.

“Okay, this time, let’s get a little one on one. Just keep them occupied and try to get them out, or run the clock. Peter, watch Steve. Thor, watch Natasha. I’ll take Clint. And Brooklyn, you already took Bucky down one on one, so I’m sure you can do it again. Let’s do this!”

Everyone finds a spot to hide in and Bruce goes to get the other team.

“Jarvis?” Bruce asks when everyone is ready.

“Timer set. Starting in three, two, one.”

Brooklyn looks over to where she can see Peter and he nods at her, leaping over the box to go after Steve. She blinks a few times, a confused look on her face. Has she seen that before? She then shakes her head and remembers she has something to do. 

Bucky is ready for her this time and manages to sneak up on her instead. He shoots her and she barely dodges, falling to the floor as she does. Her vision is going in and out, but she’s not sure why. She stands and jumps on top of the box, using its height to jump over Bucky and then onto his back. She goes for his throat with the knife but he holds her arm back, and suddenly she’s not in the gym anymore. Her legs are wrapped around an unknown man, trying to press the real knife in her hand into his throat. He’s holding her back though and manages to throw her off of him. She lands on her back and looks up to the man, who’s bringing his hands up to choke her, almost in slow motion.

“Brooklyn,” she hears in the distance. She doesn’t think she’s heard that word before. “Bruce, stop the game.”

The man gets too close to her and she slashes at him, catching his throat. Blood sputters in her face before he drops dead in front of her. 

“Brooklyn, can you hear me?” she doesn’t answer the voice, not realizing it’s talking to her.

She looks down at the body and sees blood pooling around it. The man doesn’t seem to have one identity though, the half of his face that she can see shifting as she watches. The hair shifts as well, and the next face is familiar to her, long, brown hair framing lifeless, blue eyes –

Brooklyn gasps as her vision fades, letting her back to the present. She breathes heavily, and everything around her is a blur. Someone tries to touch her but she pushes them away, sitting up from where she had been laying. She looks down at her hands, clenching them and trying to calm her breathing as her eyesight starts to focus again. She’s afraid to look up at anyone.

Bucky takes the initiative and crouches down in front of her so she’s forced to look at him. “Are you back, B?”

She nods, still breathing heavy. She closes her eyes but then opens them again immediately, Bucky’s lifeless body haunting her behind her eyes. 

“It’s okay. You’re safe here. Nothing’s going to happen.”

Brooklyn slowly looks up to see that everyone else is minding their own business on the other side of the room, except for Steve, who is giving them enough distance for privacy but also is close enough to help if needed.

“How about we get out of here, okay?” Bucky says softly, and Brooklyn nods slowly, curling into herself.

Bucky looks over to Steve and nods, so Steve goes to join the rest of the team. 

“Do you want me to leave you alone?”

“No,” she blurts out and then folds back in on herself. “Please?”

Bucky nods. “Can you stand?”

Brooklyn hesitates and shakes her head. Bucky gives her a small smile to tell her it’s alright, and he slowly and carefully picks her up, holding her tight against his chest. He carries her out the gym and takes her up to their floor, setting her down on the couch. He pulls a pillow up next to her and covers her with a blanket. 

“Do you want the TV on?” Bucky asks, and she nods. He turns it onto the cooking channel. “I’ll be right back.”

He walks into the kitchen and turns the teapot on, pulling out two mugs and some hot chocolate mix. When the water is hot enough, he makes hot chocolate for the two of them and then carries the mugs into the living room. He sits down and offers one to Brooklyn, and she pulls her hands out from under the blanket to hold it. Bucky sits down next to her, and she immediately scoots close to him, laying her head on his shoulder.

Bucky smiles. “You want to talk about it?”

She shakes her head.

“Okay. We can just sit here and watch TV then.”

They sit there in the quiet, watching people make ridiculous sculptures out of cake. Steve comes in after a few hours, ignoring them for the shower first. When he comes back, he asks Bucky, “Did you guys eat?” Bucky shakes his head, and Steve nods. “I’ll make some grilled cheese again. She seemed to like it a lot. I’ll let you know when it’s almost done so you can wake her up.” He walks away, and Bucky turns his head to look to Brooklyn, not realizing she had fallen asleep.

When Steve has a decent stack of grilled cheese done, he tells Bucky to wake Brooklyn. Bucky turns to her and pushes her hair out of her face, pulling her up so he can kiss her. Her eyes slowly open, and Bucky sees how upset she looks.

“Hey, B,” Bucky says with a small smile. “You need to eat something, okay? Steve made grilled cheese.”

Brooklyn sits up and rubs her eyes. “I didn’t realize I fell asleep.”

“It’s okay. You deserve it.”

Steve brings in some plates of grilled cheese and sits down, handing some sandwiches over to Bucky and Brooklyn.

“There’s no pineapple on here, is there?” Bucky asks, hoping maybe it’ll help make Brooklyn feel better.

Steve rolls his eyes. “I’m not that mean, jerk.”

Brooklyn doesn’t react, instead taking small bites out of her sandwich. Bucky deflates and starts to eat his own sandwiches. 

She only eats a sandwich and a half, but at least she had something. When she decides she can’t eat anymore, she sets her plate down on the table and buries herself back under the blanket, laying down with her head in Bucky’s lap.

Bucky holds his plate up higher so it doesn’t hit Brooklyn. When he finishes eating, he sets his plate to the side and starts running his hand through Brooklyn’s hair, carding his fingers through the strands. She shifts slightly, and after a while, Bucky notices she fell asleep again.

Bucky looks over to Steve. “I’m gonna get this one to bed. Thanks for making food.”

Steve nods. “If you need anything else, let me know. I hate to see either of you this way.”

“I will. Thanks.” Bucky carefully shifts Brooklyn off of his lap, trying not to wake her. Once he stands, he turns back to the couch and picks her up again, carrying her to their bedroom. He sets her down on the bed and pulls the blanket over her, and she stirs. 

She opens one of her eyes. “Bucky?” she questions.

“Shhh,” he responds, placing a kiss on her forehead. “Go back to sleep.”

She closes her eyes again and Bucky changes before climbing into bed next to her. He lays on his side and Brooklyn moves over, burying her head in his chest. Bucky presses another kiss to Brooklyn’s head, muttering, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she mumbles back, and they fall asleep together.


	11. Day Forty-One

It’s two in the morning when the tower’s alarm system starts going off. Brooklyn and Bucky bolt upright at the noise and then look to each other before jumping out of bed and getting dressed. Brooklyn finally moved her things into Bucky’s room, so they’ve made it official now, but still haven’t told the team.

“You don’t need to wear your uniforms for this one,” Jarvis says, “But the problem at hand is too important to wait.”

“Thanks,” Brooklyn responds, pulling on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, throwing her hair up in a bun for now. Bucky does the same, and they meet Steve out in the hallway, who also dressed in just sweatpants and a t-shirt.

“Any clue what’s going on?” Brooklyn asks Steve as they enter the elevator together. 

Steve shakes his head. “I don’t think we’ve ever had an alarm go off in the middle of the night for anything that’s not an actual mission.”

When they reach the common room, Tony and Natasha are already there, but no one else is yet. Tony passes them each a mug – two cups of really strong coffee for Brooklyn and Bucky, and a cup of tea for Steve. They know better than to ask questions before everyone else gets there because Tony’s not going to want to repeat it more than once. 

Thor is the next one up the elevator, somehow fully awake without the help of any caffeine. Tony still hands him a mug, but it doesn’t look like it’s coffee or tea. Bruce and Sam are next, getting a cup of tea and coffee from Tony, respectively. Bucky gets a refill on his coffee before Clint finally joins the rest of them, and Tony also hands him some coffee.

Once Clint sits down, Tony finally starts.

“Okay, I know what you’re all probably all thinking. Why am I awake at this ungodly hour, if there is no mission.” Tony presses a button on the arm of the chair he’s sitting in, and around the couches, screens project out of the ceiling. “Jarvis picked this feed up, from early last night. The building’s already cleared out; I sent a suit out to check once I saw this.”

The video plays, and everyone watches the feed from a street camera on an old warehouse. There are people loading boxes into the back of trucks. The camera angle switches to one a little further down the street, and the sides of the boxes are visible, the Hydra symbol covering the side of each box.

Brooklyn, Bucky, and Steve all clench their fists at the sight of this. Hydra has done enough to the three of them; they don’t need them to be a bother anymore.

Tony presses another button, and the screens shut off. “As I said, it’s already empty. None of the trucks had visible license plates from what video Jarvis could find, but he could get a few faces.” He turns to Bucky and Brooklyn. “I’m sorry to ask you to do this, but Jarvis is currently compiling a file of people who have been around the warehouse, as well as a few others we suspect to be Hydra. If you could go through them to see if you recognize them? It would help us out a ton. No one’s going to force you to, though.”

Brooklyn shrugs. “We’re already up, might as well.”

Bucky nods in agreement.

“Okay, no offense, but why are the rest of us up just for this?” Clint asks, an annoyed look on his face.

“Because, Legolas, the rest of us are going to look at some leads on these trucks. I need everyone to go get changed into something not obvious, so we can go around in the city and see if we can’t find anything they might have forgotten or any clues to where they went.”

“But the sun’s not going to come up for another couple of hours!”

Tony looks at Clint with a stern look. “Which means you don’t have to hide as much. And if there are any thugs walking around at this hour, then you’re a damn superhero. Take care of them yourself.” He tosses earpieces to everyone. “They’re not going to be on the whole time, just press it if you found something or need help and it’ll connect you to the rest of us. Brooklyn and Bucky have one too if they need to come in for something big, or if they recognize someone we might be able to track down. Sound good, Cap?”

Steve nods, and everyone starts to get up. Tony sets up a screen for Jarvis to show Brooklyn and Bucky everyone who could be a suspect, and then he leaves, but Natasha is still sitting in her chair.

Now that everyone’s gone, she gets up and looks to Brooklyn and Bucky. “When are you going to tell everyone?”

Brooklyn shoves Bucky’s shoulder. “I told you she knew.”

Natasha raises her eyebrow. “Does Steve know, at least?”

Bucky snorts. “It would be really hard for Steve not to know.”

“Yeah,” Brooklyn says, “He’s just caught us friendly kissing, nothing more than that.”

Bucky makes his expression serious. “Of course. And when we cuddle on the couch, it’s just because we’re cold. Nothing more.”

Natasha rolls her eyes. “Any particular reason you two haven’t told anyone?”

Brooklyn shrugs. “There hasn’t been a good moment to? What are we supposed to do, just come up here for a mission briefing and say, ‘oh, by the way, Bucky and I are dating’?”

Natasha purses her lips. “Obviously not. I’m not saying you need to tell anyone else; you can keep your lives private from the rest of us. I’m just saying; there may come a time where you don’t have a choice.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Bucky says, telling Natasha to leave without actually saying anything. She walks away to the elevator.

Once Natasha is gone, Bucky stands. “Jarvis, before you start, I’m going to make some food.”

“Of course. I will start when both of you are ready.”

Bucky disappears into the kitchen for a few minutes and reappears with a plateful of toasted bagels. He sits down next to Brooklyn and offers her a bagel, but she was already eating one. She stole it as he was in the middle of sitting down without him noticing.

Brooklyn winks at Bucky and takes another bite of her bagel. Bucky rolls his eyes and picks up a bagel of his own, and then settles into the chair.

“Okay, Jarvis, whenever you’re ready.” Bucky takes a bite of his bagel.

A picture appears on the screen. It’s a male, with jet black hair and small beady eyes, as well as a small mustache. “Kenzo Turner,” Jarvis narrates.

Brooklyn shrugs. “Looks creepy, and like someone I wouldn’t forget. Nothing here.”

Bucky agrees. “That’s not a face you’d forget.”

A red x appears in the middle of his picture, and the next one appears.

This one is a woman, a brunette with giant glasses. “Georgiana Cantell.”

“Nope,” Brooklyn says through a mouthful of food.

“I don’t recognize her either,” Bucky supplies. 

Jarvis continues to cycle through pictures along with names, and Bucky and Brooklyn still haven’t recognized anyone. 

“I couldn’t find a name on this one,” Jarvis says, revealing a picture of a balding male with blonde hair and a big chin. 

Bucky shakes his head. “No, I don’t remember him.” He looks over to Brooklyn and sees her head has tilted, staring at the picture intensely. 

“Brax Wyatt,” she says after a few seconds. “Hydra officer.” She looks over to Bucky and sees his questioning gaze, so she supplies, “Ex – handler.”

Bucky nods. They usually only used a handler once, not reusing them on the other soldier. 

“I will add him to our list, then.” Some text appears on the screen as Jarvis inputs the information Brooklyn supplied, and then continues.

They take a break around five so that Brooklyn can use the bathroom. Bucky stands up and stretches out, listening to Steve as he reads off a few documents he found in a hidden compartment that Hydra forgot in the warehouse.

They resume looking over the pictures when Brooklyn gets back. 

“Wait, I think I know him,” Bucky says to the next man, but Brooklyn shakes her head.

“He’s dead.” 

“How do you know that?” Bucky asks.

Brooklyn takes a sip of her drink and says, “I killed him.”

There’s an awkward silence in the room as Jarvis enters this in and switches to the next picture.

They take another break at eight when Tony comes back to check on their progress.

“Turns out that’s a really busy area,” Brooklyn says. “Being as we’ve been doing this for around six hours and still nowhere near done.”

“Actually,” Jarvis says, “You are about halfway through my data collection.”

Bucky purses his lips. “Great, so we’ll be done in another six hours.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “I told you no one was going to force you to do this, and that still stands. If you don’t want to or can’t continue, then there’s nothing stopping you.”

“We understand,” Brooklyn answers, tossing some cookies they had recently brought over to the couches to Tony. “Here, eat something while you’re here.”

Tony catches them and nods, leaving the room again to head back out and look for more clues. Bucky uses the bathroom while they are taking a break, and then they continue to look over the pictures.

They go through a long list of people neither of them recognize, and they wonder if there even is any more Hydra agents on the list. Then Jarvis changes the picture and one after another, either Bucky or Brooklyn identify them as Hydra agents. 

Then it all comes to a stop.

The next picture on the screen is a man with a skinny, wrinkly face, the only hair on his face being his eyebrows, and a big, hooked nose.

After a few seconds of silence as Brooklyn and Bucky stare at the picture, Jarvis asks, “Is everything alright?” 

Brooklyn shakes her head slowly, and Bucky reaches up to turn his earpiece on. “Guys, we have a serious problem.”

About half an hour later everyone has finally made their way back to the tower and up to the common room. Jarvis displays the picture of the man for everyone to see, even if he’s not sure what is going on.

“Okay, so what’s up with the bald wonder here?” Sam asks, leaning against one of the armchairs. 

“Dr. William Bolzan,” Brooklyn supplies, on edge. “Renowned Hydra scientist.”

Bucky picks up from there. “Bolzan took over when Zola kicked the bucket.”

Brooklyn hits Bucky’s metal arm. “He’s the one behind these.”

Tony’s eyes grow wide. “You mean this old man made that?” he says

Bucky nods. “And the one Brooklyn had before it was destroyed.”

“This guy one of the ones you picked up at the warehouse Jarvis?” Steve asks, arms crossed.

“Indeed.”

Thunder booms outside and Brooklyn jumps. She looks out the window at the storm clouds that have gathered around the tower and looks back at the group sheepishly. “Oops. Sorry about that.”

“Nothing to be sorry for,” Steve says, his arms unfolding and his eyes growing soft. “We’ve all been busy since two this morning. Why don’t we take a break for now? We don’t have any leads on where they might be, so there’s nothing more we can do at the moment.”

Brooklyn nods in wordless thanks, and everyone else agrees, slowly filtering out of the common room, back to their respective floors.

Bucky rubs his eyes. “I’m starving. Do we have anything in the fridge we can make quick and easy?”

Brooklyn purses her lips. “Bucky, you’ve been eating all day.”

His eyes open wide and he gestures at her. “So have you! What do you mean?”

She crosses her arms. “I wasn’t the one who said I was starving.”

Bucky points at her as they walk over to the elevator. “But you’re still hungry. I can tell.”

Brooklyn rolls her eyes but doesn’t disagree with him. Steve joins them in the elevator and says, “I think there’s some canned soup in the cabinet I saw. I can throw it in a pot, and it’ll only take a few minutes to heat up.”

“Thanks, Steve,” Brooklyn says. “Since _someone_ wants a full-on meal when he’s been eating all day.” She glares at Bucky during the last part, and Bucky rolls his eyes.

“You know as well as I do that the serum burns through all of that like it’s nothing. You also know that you’ll be having some as well, don’t lie.”

“I’ll be having one bowl. _One._ Because unlike you, I don’t want to eat away all of our money.”

The elevator door opens, and they all step out onto their floor.

Steve says, “Technically it’s Stark’s money, and that never seems to run out, so we’ll be fine.”

Bucky looks over to Brooklyn and gestures to Steve. “See?”

Brooklyn glares at Steve. “ _Thanks,_ Steve. Just what I needed. For you to take Bucky’s side.” She rolls her eyes and walks into the kitchen, getting herself a drink.

“Hey, Bucky was my friend first,” Steve says. “Besides, I’m with him till the end of the line.”

Brooklyn deadpans. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Blame Bucky, he said it first.”

Brooklyn looks over to Bucky, and he gives a vague head nod, agreeing with Steve.

“Ugh. I’m going to throw up. Go get a room, you two.”

Steve shakes his head and pulls out some cans of soup and a pot while continuing the conversation. “Besides, if you’re really afraid of Bucky losing his physique, a little more food’s not going to do any harm.”

Brooklyn chokes on her drink. “I hate you,” she sputters, and Bucky laughs. 

Once Bucky’s laughter dies out, it’s quiet for a few minutes as Steve starts to heat the soup up.

He then starts the conversation up again, much more serious this time. “So. This Dr. Bolzan. Is this going to be worse than we thought?”

Bucky nods. “I didn’t even think the man was still alive; he’s so old by now.”

Brooklyn clenches her fist, looking down at her drink. “He was there when they were brainwashing me. He’ll know how to…” She trails off, not wanting to voice her fears out loud.

Bucky grips her hand tight, and she looks over to him. “It’ll be okay, Brooklyn. We’ve got the whole team at our back. They will do whatever they can to help us get rid of him. And if he does manage to - you know, I don’t think he’ll stand a chance against you.” Bucky places a kiss on her forehead, and she smiles dumbly.

Steve clears his throat. “Sorry to bring it up again.”

Brooklyn waves it off. “No, no, you needed to know. It’s important.”

Steve nods in thanks and finishes heating the soup. Once it’s hot enough, he pulls three bowls out and fills each of them.

The three of them eat in silence, all the excitement of this morning finally catching up to them as they have time to rest. Brooklyn eats slowly, to the point where Steve and Bucky are halfway done their second bowls before she finishes her first.

She yawns and pushes the bowl away from her, occupying its previous position with her head.

Bucky places a hand on her arm. “It’s been a long, rough morning, doll. Why don’t you go ahead and get some rest? I’ll clean up here and come along after I finish eating.”

Brooklyn slides out of her chair and nods tiredly, walking back to the bedroom and collapsing onto the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

Back in the kitchen, Steve looks at Bucky with a smirk, and Bucky gives him a questioning glance.

“You called her doll.”

Bucky raises his eyebrow. “I did?”

“Mhmm,” Steve responds, nodding as well. “I thought you were just going to call her B for the rest of your lives.”

Bucky shrugs. “Must’ve slipped out.”

Steve smiles at him, still a little bit of a tease to it. “Hey, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you call anyone doll unless you were sort of serious about them, so I’d say it’s a good sign.”

“Yeah?” Bucky asks, sincere in his question.

“Yeah,” Steve responds, completely serious now. “You two are good for each other.”

Bucky smiles. “Thanks, punk.”

They finish off the pot of soup and clean up before Bucky goes back to the bedroom too, closing the blinds against the afternoon sun before carefully climbing into bed next to Brooklyn and pulling her close, falling asleep quickly.


	12. Day Forty-Three

Bucky and Brooklyn wake up to the sun streaming in their faces late in the morning. Brooklyn squints at the window and then flips over in the bed, burying her face into the pillow.

Bucky chuckles as he sits up and stretches. “Come on, B. It’s –” He pauses to look at the clock. “Ten thirty already.” Bucky furrows his eyebrows. “That’s weird; usually Steve tries to wake us up around nine.” He picks up his phone and starts to go through his notifications.

Brooklyn groans and reaches out in the general direction of Bucky, trying to find him so she can pull him close. She brushes the back of his arm, and he gently swats her hand away, reading through his messages intently.

“Those sons of bitches,” Bucky says, and Brooklyn looks over at him, face still half buried in the pillow.

“What’s wrong?”

Bucky wordlessly passes his phone to her, letting her read the messages Steve sent him recently. 

_Hey, Buck. I know this is going to make you mad. We got a lead in the middle of the night on that hydra group. Jarvis woke everyone but the two of you, thinking you two might be too close to this particular hydra case to come with us. So, the two of you are alone in the tower for now. We don’t know how long we’ll be gone for. I’ll let you know when we’re on the way back._

She drops the phone onto the bed and buries her face back into the pillow. “Shit.”

Bucky stands up out of bed and pulls his phone off of the bed before it gets lost in the sheets. He pulls the covers off of Brooklyn and she groans, then yelps in surprise as he picks her up.

“Come on, sleepy head, we’ve got the whole day to ourselves. Do you really want to spend the rest of the day sleeping in bed?”

“Yes,” she pouts, and Bucky rolls his eyes.

“Fine, then you can sleep on the couch.” He drops her onto the couch and she bounces, her messy red hair falling into her face. 

She sticks her tongue out at him and says, “What are we gonna do then?”

Bucky shrugs in response and says, “All I know is that I’m going to go make breakfast for us. After that, we have a lot of time on our hands that we should figure out what to do with.”

He walks into the kitchen and pulls out a container of cinnamon rolls from the fridge, preheating the oven to where it needs to be. He hears the sound of the T.V. filter in from the living room, meaning Brooklyn actually moved. He pulls out two mugs and some hot chocolate mix, ready to make this morning as relaxed as possible.

The cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate finish around the same time, and soon, Bucky is taking the food with him back to Brooklyn.

“What are we watching?” He asks as he puts the food down on the coffee table, pushing the bundle of blankets that is Brooklyn over on the couch so he can sit down. 

She makes a vague noise and says, “I don’t know, Steve left it on this documentary yesterday.”

Bucky rolls his eyes as Brooklyn undoes the blanket some so she can reach her food. “Steve loves these stupid documentaries for some reason.” He picks his plate back up before saying, “Why didn’t you change it?”

Brooklyn shrugs. “I didn’t feel like it.”

Bucky sighs and picks the remote up, changing from the DVD input to cable. Food Network is on, so he leaves it there for now, hearing no complaints from Brooklyn. 

“I was thinking,” Brooklyn says through a mouth of food. “Would you wanna get out of here for the day? No one’s here to think just the two of us leaving might be strange. We could; I don’t know, go back to the park?”

Bucky takes a bite of his food, thinking. “Hmm, I could throw some sandwiches together real quick and we could grab a blanket, have a picnic?”

“Sure,” Brooklyn answers, “As long as we don’t sit here and watch TV all day, it gets really boring after a while.”

“Yeah,” Bucky agrees, “I know what you mean. I’ll get stuff together once I finish eating then.”

The TV stays on as they finish their breakfast, after which Brooklyn goes to get ready while Bucky prepares some lunch. Half an hour later, both of them are ready to go, and Bucky carries the basket of food in one hand while holding Brooklyn’s hand in the other.

They trust Jarvis to keep an eye on the tower while they are gone and they head back to Central Park. It’s nice and sunny out, and it’s the middle of the week, so they don’t see many people as they walk the trails in silence, enjoying the quiet together. Bucky leads them, knowing of a nice secluded clearing they can have the picnic in. 

By the time they reach the clearing, both of them are starting to get hungry, so they stop and Bucky sets a blanket out on the grass before they sit down.

Brooklyn snuggles into Buckys side and he wraps his arm around her, running his fingers through her hair.

“Wait, is that my sweatshirt?” Bucky asks, pulling away to look down at the jacket Brooklyn is wearing.

Brooklyn shrugs. “It smells like you, so I wanted to wear it.”

“It smells like me?”

“Like your cologne, or whatever. It smells good.”

Bucky rolls his eyes but pulls Brooklyn in close again. After a few seconds of silence, she says, “This is mine now.”

“You’re stealing my jacket now, huh?”

“It’s warm and cozy.”

“I could buy you your own.”

Brooklyn nuzzles her face into Bucky’s chest. “But I like yours.”

Bucky sighs and shakes his head, pulling the basket of food close. “You hungry?” Brooklyn nods, and Bucky carefully pushes her away. “You can’t eat when your head is in my chest.”

She pouts and sticks her tongue out at him, taking the sandwich he offers her. The birds chirping are the only sounds as they eat through the contents of the basket, and soon Bucky nudges Brooklyn in the shoulder.

“Everything okay?” he asks, concern in his eyes.

“Nothing?” Brooklyn says, raising her eyebrow.

Bucky purses his lips and points to the sky. “Last I checked, it was sunny, not overcast.”

Brooklyn looks up to where Bucky is pointing and sees the gray clouds. She looks back at Bucky and smiles sheepishly. “Okay, you caught me.”

Bucky places a hand on top of Brooklyn's. “What's wrong, B?”

She sighs and looks up at him. “I don't know. Honestly. Today's been nice and peaceful, we even got to sleep in – it just feels like, the calm before the storm, you know?”

Bucky smiles knowingly and brushes some of her hair out of her face, tracing a thumb along her freckles. “I know, doll. Some days just feel too good to be true, right? Who knows when everything might go to shit.” He cups her face with his hand to make sure she's looking at him as he finishes with, “It's better if you live life day by day, not worrying about what will come tomorrow. When you worry about the future, you forget to live in the present.” He then pulls her close, catching his lips with hers.

When they pull away, she whispers, “Thanks,” to him, leaning back on his shoulder.

After Bucky has had his share of the peace and quiet, he says, “You ready to head back? Kids are probably out of school now, so I doubt the park is going to stay quiet for much longer.”

Brooklyn nods, stretching her arms out as she pulls away from Bucky. “What else should we do?”

Bucky stands and starts to clean up their mess. “Well, I did just remember that we haven’t introduced you to video games yet. I bet someone’s going to want to do that, maybe Peter. But if I beat them to it, then you can learn the ropes and pretend that you’re just naturally gifted with the games then.” Bucky laughs. “Steve did that for me, at least. Let me just say; it does not disappoint when everyone thinks they’re gonna beat you at Mario Kart.”

Brooklyn smiles, saying, “I don’t know what that is, but it sounds fun.”

Having everything packed up, Bucky laces his fingers with Brooklyn’s again and they start the walk back to the tower. “It’s a racing game. The controls are simple, really, so it shouldn’t take long for you to know how to race.”

They make it back to the tower without any issues, and Brooklyn takes the basket from Bucky to put away on their floor as he goes up to the common room to start setting the game up.

Bucky hears the elevator door open and soon Brooklyn jumps over the back of the couch, landing in the seat next to him. 

Bucky wordlessly passes a steering wheel with the Wii remote in it over to Brooklyn.

She examines it and asks, “So what buttons do what?”

Bucky gives her the rundown of the controls as the game loads up. Being that it's for the whole tower, everything is already unlocked.

“So, why is it called Mario Kart 8?” Brooklyn asks as she chooses Pink Gold Peach. 

Bucky picks Metal Mario and answers, “I don’t know. I’ve asked already, and no one can seem to give me a straight answer. All I know is that they just keep getting better graphics, and maybe something else, I can’t remember.”

Bucky picks the tracks, and they start to play. Bucky was right, Brooklyn learns how to race really fast. Soon, the two are competing for first in every race they play. Bucky orders pizza at some point and they raid the fridge for drinks, but then they go right back to racing each other.

Brooklyn yawns after another Grand Prix is finished and says, “How about we call it a tie and head to bed?”

Bucky says, “Fine, but if you hadn’t won that last one, I would have definitely won.”

Brooklyn rolls her eyes as Bucky shuts everything down. “Sure, whatever you say hon.”

Once everything is shut down and they double check with Jarvis that they did in fact take care of everything, then they go back downstairs to their room. 

Brooklyn flops on the bed and groans. “We’re gonna have to figure out something to do tomorrow too, if they aren’t back yet.”

Sitting down next to her, he says, “Well, there are video games other than Mario Kart. I have been warned against a few because apparently there are some really realistic war games that just watching set Steve off, but I know which ones they are.”

“That sounds like it would be fun,” Brooklyn answers as she shimmies up the bed to bury her face in her pillow.

Bucky laughs at her. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I think it’d be very hard to think you were ever an assassin.”

She simply flips him off and Bucky shakes his head, turning the light off before pulling the blankets over top of both of them.

“Night Buck,” Brooklyn says, voice muffled by the pillow.

He leans in and kisses the top of her head and answers with, “Goodnight, B.”


	13. Day Forty-Four

Brooklyn wakes up to an empty bed and the smell of pancakes wafting through the air. She follows her nose to the kitchen, where Bucky is currently making two giant stacks of chocolate chip pancakes.

“Morning,” she says as she sits down, and Bucky turns to her with a smile.

“Morning, B. I was in a mood for pancakes this morning, I hope you don’t mind that I put chocolate in them.”

“Like you’ve ever heard me complain about chocolate. Heard anything from Steve? Or anyone?” she asks, curious.

Bucky gestures to his phone on the counter and Brooklyn picks it up, opening it to his messages with Steve. She scrolls back to the text Steve sent about them leaving yesterday, and reads from there down.

_Bucky: Fuck u_

_Steve: I was expecting worse, I’ll take that._

_Bucky: Anything yet?_

_Steve: No. Still searching._

“So… No, not really.” She sighs and puts the phone down. “We don’t even know where they are, do we? I doubt they left the country; it seems like there hasn’t been enough time for Hydra to move all that stuff across the seas.”

“Yeah, and we don’t really know what they had, did we? For all we know, it can’t go on a plane.” He turns the stove off and piles the last pancake on top of one of the stacks, then picks both plates up and moves them to the table. Brooklyn starts buttering hers as Bucky drenches his in syrup, gaining a fond head shaking from Brooklyn.

“What is that for?” Bucky asks, starting to cut into his stack.

“If you didn’t have some enhanced super-soldier serum right now, I don’t think you’d last a day with how much caffeine and sugar you eat.”

“If I didn’t have the enhanced serum I’m sure I’d be watching what I was eating!” Bucky says, but when Brooklyn raises her eyebrow at him, he slumps his shoulders a little and says, “Okay, fine, I probably wouldn’t. But I wouldn’t need to be eating as much, so there.” He sticks his tongue out at her and then takes a bite of his pancakes.

They eat the rest of their breakfast in silence, too busy stuffing their faces to talk anymore. They clean up together and then head back up to the common room, still in their pajamas. Bucky turns the Wii on again and hands a remote over to Brooklyn, this time without the wheel.

“What game are we about to attempt today?” Brooklyn asks as Bucky sits.

A mischevious smile appears across his face. “It’ll be fun when you beat everyone in Mario Kart, but honestly the controls are so easy, they should really be expecting it. This game, however, will draw out some real nice reactions. It’s called Super Smash Bros, and today I want to get you used to every single character so they can’t just say beginners luck.”

This is how the two spend their morning, with Bucky teaching Brooklyn about all the different characters and the best strategies to use to win against anyone. They haven’t started competitively playing yet, but they plan on it soon.

They take a quick lunch break, and Bucky confirms that there’s still no sign of when the Avengers will be back. Brooklyn gets a text on her phone as they are eating that develops into a conversation. 

_Peter: Hey Ms. Brooklyn, I heard everyone but you and Mr. Bucky are out doing something right now, so it’s okay if you say no, but could I stop by later today? I could really use some new web fluid and Mr. Stark’s lab is the best place to make some, but I also have a Spanish test next week I was hoping you could help me study for._

“He types like Steve,” Brooklyn says after Bucky has read the message and hands the phone back over.

“He’s probably just doing it because he knows Steve doesn’t always understand the shortcuts, so he just assumes we might not to.” Bucky takes another bite of his sandwich and then says, “Or it could be because the boy is ridiculously polite and I’ve only ever seen him text in shorthand to his friends.”

Brooklyn shrugs. “I’m cool with him coming over if you are, we’ll just have to change first.”

Bucky smiles. “You’ve always had a soft spot for kids. Let him come, just have him tell us when he’s on the way.”

_Brooklyn: Sure kid, just text when ur on the way_

_Peter: Thanks!!!_

_Brooklyn: np_

They go back to Smash Bros after that, this time with a little bit of competition thrown into the mix. Bucky and Brooklyn keep switching who’s winning, losing one round then winning the next in a repetitive cycle until the alarms start blaring. 

They both stop what they are doing and Jarvis shuts the console off to bring up live footage on the TV.

“Shit, that's right outside!” Bucky says, leaping to his feet.

“They are attempting to hack into my database,” Jarvis says as the two run to the elevator.

“Do they know there’s no one but us here?” Brooklyn asks, adrenaline pumping as they stand in the elevator.

“It is uncertain, but most unlikely, Mr. Stark did hide that they were leaving.”

“Can you hold them off?” Brooklyn asks and the elevator finally opens to their floor, so they run quickly to the bedroom to change and get weapons.

“They are trying, but it is a very simple attack, and easy to defend off.”

“That’s good,” Bucky says as he straps a pistol to his hip, having already changed.

Brooklyn knows her hair is a mess but doesn’t have time to do anything, so she quickly throws it up in a messy bun before running back out to the elevator with Bucky. Jarvis quickly takes them down to the lobby, and they connect their earpieces with him to make sure the attack at the front isn’t a diversion. He'll warn them if anyone else comes.

Bucky runs out first and Brooklyn follows, the two a flash of black, green, and silver as they start to fight the attackers off. Brooklyn dodges a punch and comes up under his arm with a knife, slashing at him and making him fall. Bucky punches a man and knocks him out cold, then pulls a pistol out of its holster and shoots a couple more that were coming for him.

Tires squeal and trucks appear, with more goons coming out of them to try and get past Bucky and Brooklyn. 

“Any clue where they’re from Jarvis?” Brooklyn yells, kicking the next man’s leg out and swinging her fist at him, and he falls over.

“They are not coming up in any of our databases. Their attack on me has yet to stop, but it has not gotten any stronger, so I am still holding it off.”

“They have to be from somewhere,” Bucky yells, grabbing a man from behind and throwing him at another man close by, both of them landing on the ground.

“Well, do we know any organizations that usually go by unrecognized?” Brooklyn asks, pulling a knife out of a man's leg and throwing it at another man charging her.

“Well, we think there are a gang or two of ninjas running around Hell’s Kitchen, but we haven’t really looked into it, and these guys don’t seem like ninjas,” Bucky answers, watching as another round of men come in from even more trucks.

“Why haven’t you looked into it?” Brooklyn asks, choking a man with a garrote that Natasha gave her as a gift.

Bucky shoots a few more men before saying, “I don’t know, they said there’s someone over there taking care of it already. I don’t remember the guy's name; I’ve never met him.”

“It could be Hydra,” Jarvis suggests, and Bucky and Brooklyn are silent for a few seconds as they continue to fight.

“They’d be wearing the symbol though, wouldn’t they?” Brooklyn asks, ducking and rolling to avoid a punch and a kick.

“Unless they didn’t want us to know that,” Bucky answers, throwing a grenade he was holding towards the edge of the swarming group of men. “Jesus, where the hell are they all coming from? Jarvis, can you see if they’ve removed or covered any symbols on anything? And while you’re at it, contact one of the others and tell them what’s going on?”

“Right awa-y…”

Bucky furrows his brows as his arm spasms, and calls out, “Jarvis?”

There is no answer.

“Jarvis?” Bucky calls again, ducking a punch and not paying attention to the man as he knocks him out. “B?” He calls, but he doesn’t get a response from her either. He turns quickly, heart racing, but sees that she’s still up and fighting. 

“Jarvis?” she calls out, her right arm acting slower than usual so she has to duck a punch instead of blocking it. “Bucky?” Neither of them answer. “Something must have messed up the comms,” she mutters under her breath, picking a man off of the ground and throwing him towards the people closest to her so she can turn around to see Bucky again. 

Everything around her seems to slow as she sees Bucky’s back is turned towards the trucks, and he steps out. Dr. William Bolzan. The short, bald scientist that works for Hydra, his long nose sticking out in front of him. Someone grabs her from behind and she struggles against his arms as she watches the man get closer to Bucky. Breaking through the arms holding her, she runs towards them, screaming, “NO!”

But it was too late. The man says, “Спутник,” before she can reach him, and Bucky goes still, the men fighting him pulling back and stopping as well. He turns to her as she grows closer and says, “Крылатый дракон.”

Brooklyn stops in her tracks and her vision blurs around the edges, and everyone in the area stops moving.

“Солдат?” Bolzan asks.

“Готовы подчиниться,” Bucky responds.

Bolzan looks over to Brooklyn, and she responds, “Ready to comply.”

He smiles and motions to the two of them to get in the car. Bucky goes immediately but Brooklyn looks up at the tower, seeing a small blue and red speck on the side.

“Солдат!” Bolzan barks harshly, and she turns around to get in next to Bucky, losing the last bit of control she had over herself. The car door closes them in and a Hydra agent gets in the front seat, starting the car and following the other cars back to their base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >:)


	14. Day Forty-Five

The car finally stops outside of the Hydra base in the early hours of the morning. The ride had been completely silent, being that there was only one Hydra goon in the front and two Winter Soldiers in the back. They sat perfectly straight, unmoving, and unless you caught them blinking, you’d think they were statues. The man driving kept glancing at them in the mirror, a little unnerved by being alone with both of them.

As they climb out of the car, Brooklyn clears her head enough to look around without being prompted. She sees all the trees surrounding the base and wonders how far into the woods they are. 

“Солдат!” Bolzan calls and Brooklyn loses herself again, both her and Bucky walking over to the car he had just gotten out of. 

This entire time, Brooklyn and Bucky have been fighting at the programming, but it is as if their selves have been locked away in a cage inside their heads, still able to see what is going on, but not able to do anything. So, they follow the scientist into the building, and he leads them through a maze of hallways until they finally stop in a big, open room.

He motions for them to wait, so they do as he walks over to a person on the other side of the room, conversing with them in tones low enough that Brooklyn and Bucky can’t hear them. A look of concern grows on his face before he turns away and walks back over.

“It is a delight to have you back,” he says to the two of them in a thick Russian accent. “I am glad to see the reset still worked.” He looks to Bucky and then over at Brooklyn, “Mostly.” He leads them over to the scientists in the room, who all turn away from their work to listen to him. “These two here are the Winter Soldiers, I hope seeing them in person will help speed up your work,” he says with a glare, and a few scientists advert their eyes. “Back to work.”

He leaves Brooklyn and Bucky standing against the wall in the room to watch over the scientists and to make sure they are working. Most of them have an electronic device strapped around their ankle, and every now and then they glance over at Bucky and Brooklyn in fear.

It wasn’t clear before what they were making, but the longer they stand and stare at it, the more familiar the curves and angles of the machines are. There are two cryo chambers being built, and at least one chair, with room for another. Brooklyn's heart rate increases at this realization, because if they get that chair up and running again, and put Bucky or Brooklyn in it, then there’s almost no chance for them to escape.

She also can’t help but notice that the scientists seem to be working slow. With the devices around their ankles, Brooklyn can only assume they are prisoners being forced to work. Maybe they hope that if going slow, there’s a chance they could be saved. She fights her programming to do something about them going slow and hopes Bucky does the same.

Who knows how long the Avengers will be though? Something happened when they were fighting that quite possibly knocked Jarvis out. Without Jarvis, there was no one to contact the Avengers, wherever they are. They could still be out on their mission, and by the time they get back and realize Bucky and Brooklyn are missing, everything might be finished, and there is no chance of rescuing them.

Then Brooklyn remembers when she looked up at the tower. The strange speck of color on the glass. Clinging onto the glass. It was red and blue. Peter was supposed to drop by at some point yesterday; it must have been him. Peter would know how to contact Tony, and they might be looking for them right now. 

With this realization, Brooklyn tries with new effort to mentally break the cage her mind’s been locked in. Something slips loose, and she’s able to move her eyes to look over at Bucky. He’s frowning, and it looks like he’s straining against something. He must be trying to fight back against his programming too, but it’s taking all his effort to do so. She tries again, but she can’t seem to get anymore loose than she already is. 

Brooklyn wishes she could lose track of the amount of time they are just standing there, but with her programming active, she is painfully aware of every minute that passes. Someone comes in to give the scientists food, and they take a break to eat, the strained look on Bucky easing up a bit. One of the scientists picks up two glasses of water and slowly makes their way over to Bucky and Brooklyn, clearly terrified.

“I thought you might want these,” she offers, a nervous smile on her face. “They have had you standing here for hours, after all.” When neither of them moves to take a glass, she gives a small nod and sets them on a table next to them, hurrying back over to the rest of the group.

As the scientists finish eating and go back to work, the lights go out, replaced with a flashing red light and an alarm blaring. The scientists all look up in fear and then cower in the corner together, abandoning their work. The door to the room bursts open and Dr. Bolzan comes in again, a crazed look in his eyes as he looks over to Bucky and Brooklyn. 

“You two!” he barks, barely recognizable through his accent. “Mission change, protect me!”

They finally move away from the wall and follow the doctor through even more hallways to his office, where he locks the door and secures any entry points. It is a decently large room, and clearly, Bolzan has never been in this situation before, because one of the walls of the office is entirely glass. 

Brooklyn can only hope the Avengers are what is currently attacking the base as she and Bucky keep an eye on every possible entry to be able to protect Bolzan. Hopefully, they know how to break them out of this state too, before they have to fight. Steve did it to Bucky before, so maybe he can do it again, and then Bucky can somehow break Brooklyn out. 

The sound of fighting gets louder and louder in the hallway, so everyone turns towards the door, leaving the window behind them open. It suddenly goes quiet for a second, and then the door comes crashing down, dust flying everywhere. Bucky and Brooklyn both shoot at the hole in the wall, but the bullets glance harmlessly off of the vibranium shield that comes into view as the dust starts to clear. 

Steve’s head pokes up from behind the shield once they stop shooting and he looks straight at Bucky, saying, “Bucky?” in a soft tone. Bucky is still holding his gun up but hesitates long enough for the window behind them to shatter, everyone covering themselves as Tony breaks through the glass with his suit. He lands in the office and Brooklyn trains her gun on him, looking for an opening in the suit the bullet could penetrate before blinking and trying to think of something other than the weakest spots in the Iron Man armor.

Tony holds his hand up in her direction and holds another up in the direction of Bolzan but doesn’t do anything else. Steve raises his hand at Tony and gestures for him to lower his arms, which he only does slightly.

Seeing that nothing is happening yet, Bolzan screams at Bucky, “Солдат, shoot him!”

Bucky brings his gun up to aim it at Steve and Brooklyn can see that he’s straining against it all again. Steve tosses his shield to the ground and holds his hands up in front of him peacefully.

“Steve, what are you doing?” Tony hisses, a little metallic due to the mask, but Steve just quiets him, concentrating on Bucky.

He slowly pulls his helmet off too, his blond hair sticking up at odd angles. Bucky’s hand starts to tremble, so he moves the gun to his left hand, but his finger is nowhere near the trigger.

Bolzan presses his lips together, clearly upset that he’s not listening. “This is why I told those idiots to speed up on the chair; then we wouldn’t have this problem.” He turns to Brooklyn and says, “Василиск, if the Asset doesn’t shoot this man, you shoot the Asset.”

Brooklyn’s arm swings around from facing Tony to point the gun at Bucky, and Steve goes white. This was not part of the plan. 

Brooklyn’s own hand starts to shake at the new order as she looks at Bucky. His blue eyes glance up to meet hers and she can see that he’s scared, terrified he’s going to pull the trigger and actually manage to kill his friend this time. In one more last-ditch attempt, Brooklyn throws all she has at the mental cage – and she takes a step forward. 

Startled, she draws in a breath and realizes it worked. She’s back in control now. She takes another step toward Bucky, a fierce determination now in her eyes as she plays her part. Bucky’s finger moved closer to the trigger. Another step. Steve is still trying to get Bucky back, saying things that Brooklyn can no longer hear as she focuses on Bucky. Another step. The sound of Tony’s repulsors charging meets her ears, but she’s almost there. One last step.

Bucky trembles under her as she places the barrel of her gun on his head, but he didn’t notice her turn the safety on first. Bolzan grins wickedly as it looks like Brooklyn is about to pull the trigger, but she quickly brings her other hand up to turn Bucky’s face, crashing her lips against his. She can feel the tension leaving him as he melts into the kiss, and his arm lowers, no longer pointing at Steve.

“No!” Bolzan yells, “Крылатый дракон! Крылатый дракон! Kill him!” But the words no longer work on Brooklyn. She drops her own gun to hold onto Bucky better as he spins them around, still kissing. He raises his gun and Brooklyn raises her arm, and static fills the air as Bucky shoots Bolzan, a bolt of lightning hitting him at the same time as the bullet. He drops to the floor as the rest of the Avengers start to filter into the room, some from out in the hallway, others from the broken window. 

Brooklyn and Bucky finally break the kiss as they lower their hands, pressing their foreheads together with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes.

“You did it, B,” Bucky breathes, trying to catch his breath from everything that just happened but chuckling all the same.

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” Brooklyn responds, which is entirely true because without her orders being to shoot Bucky, she wouldn’t have been able to break free.

Tony’s faceplate lifts and he says, “Okay, what just happened?”

Bucky and Brooklyn ignore him and turn to look at Steve instead, who has retrieved his helmet and shield, beaming at them.

“How did you find us?” Brooklyn asks, still clutching Bucky in her arms.

“You kidding?” Steve asks, and when Brooklyn looks at him confused, he responds with, “The kid called us frantically when he got to the tower at the end of the fight, watching them lead the two of you into the cars. He said he thought you looked up at him and saw him, but he wasn’t sure. By the time we got back to the tower Jarvis had rebooted after the EMP took him out, and he managed to find a strangely shaped cloud within the possible distance you could have gotten. Upon closer inspection and some arguing, we realized it was a spider. Why else would there be a lone cloud shaped like a spider? So we took a chance and when we got here, the woods were full of fog, concealing us, but the base was clear as day.”

“Huh,” Brooklyn says, finally pulling away from Bucky. “I guess they never got me fully then, did they? I didn’t even know I was doing that.”

“Seriously, are we not going to talk about what just happened?” Tony says, looking around at the group, but again, he is ignored as Peter swings in through the broken window.

“Here you guys are! I couldn’t find you.” He rips his mask off and runs over to Brooklyn, wrapping his arms tightly around her. Shocked, she takes a step back, but then she wraps her arms around him, returning the hug.

She looks up at Tony and mouths, “On the way home,” and he nods, a confused look in his eye.

“I’m sorry,” Peter suddenly says, sounding like he’s crying. “If I had been there sooner, I could have stopped this from happening.”

Brooklyn rubs his back comfortingly, “Its okay kid; we don’t know what would have happened. You did good, going straight to Tony and getting everyone to come and rescue us before anything bad happened.”

Peter pulls away and wipes his face with the back of his hand, and Brooklyn smiles at him.

“What about the scientists?” Bucky asks, “Some of them were being forced to work.”

“Bruce is handling it,” Natasha explains. “He was sitting in the quinjet, figured the Hulk was a bad idea for this one since you two were probably back in Winter Soldier mode. Once we found them, we cleared the way for him to get in and try to figure out how to deactivate the cuffs on their ankles. There’s police on the way to get them out of here and back to safety.”

“I should go see if he needs help,” Tony says and walks past the others to the hole in the wall where he pauses. “Kid, we could use your help too.”

“Me?” Peter asks, his face lighting up. “Of course, Mr. Stark, I’m coming!” He runs over to him and they leave to find Bruce.

“So,” Clint says, leaning on the wall that used to be attached to the doorframe, “Are we gonna just pretend nothing happened?”

Bucky sighs and Brooklyn rolls her eyes. 

“I just told Tony to wait until we’re on the way home, you can wait too.”

Thor walks over and claps both of them on their shoulders. “It does not matter to me, friends, how you have gotten together, what matters is that you both seem happy.”

Bucky smiles and looks over at Brooklyn. “Yeah. I am.”

Sam winks at Bucky, and Bucky rolls his eyes, pulling Brooklyn close again.

They all wait around outside for the police to show up to make sure all the scientists get out of the base safely, and soon they are all back on the quinjet, sitting around near Bucky and Brooklyn to listen to their story. 

The two are holding hands, and Brooklyn is leaning her head on Bucky’s shoulder, tired after everything that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours.

“Okay, who’s gonna start?” Tony asks as he joins the group after he set the quinjet on autopilot. 

Bucky squeezes Brooklyn’s hand, knowing she remembers the beginning better than he does.

“Well, we’ve been hiding this from you for about two and a half weeks now, it’s not been that long. But, it didn’t start two weeks ago.” She looks over at Peter sitting next to her and says, “Kid, this might not be a good story for you to hear.”

He waves it off, saying, “I’m a superhero, I know all about violence.”

Brooklyn nods and starts her story. “I can’t remember what year it was; I don’t think Bucky remembers either. Before they turned me into a Winter Soldier, but after I had my powers, they were forcing me out on missions. For a while, they had made me Bucky’s handler. We were given a kill mission – some rich guy who knew too many of Hydra’s secrets and just said he was leaving Hydra behind.” She shakes her head and continues, “We were supposed to do the job without any witnesses. I had made sure the area was clear before we went in. I didn’t feel bad about it at all; he had been Hydra after all. We end up shooting him outside, just as a school bus drives past. I knew that Bucky had been told the no witnesses thing too, and knew that if I didn’t do something, we’d go back and he’d tell on me. So, fearing Hydra, I fried the bus and everyone in it.” She frowns, “That’s when I snapped. I couldn’t do it anymore. I grabbed him, and we ran.”

Bucky picks the story up where she left off, starting with, “Being that she was my handler, I had to listen to her. I didn’t think much of it as we ran out of the city, towards the nearby forest. I couldn’t really think for myself anyway. We had to camp under trees for a few days as we roamed the woods before we found this abandoned house with a spring behind it. We took shelter there, and Brooklyn made a thick fog nearby, hoping no one would find us. We finished off the food provisions that we had been carrying due to the possibility of a long mission, so we started hunting and gathering close to the house. Other than that, there wasn’t much to do, so Brooklyn started to make these fantastic stories to pass the time, and I’d listen diligently. At least once a day she’d tell me that we were going to find out what my name was. As the Winter Soldier started to melt away, I started to fall in love. One day, after she finished telling a story, I looked at her and she just looked so beautiful, I pulled her in and kissed her. As I pulled away, she didn’t get a chance to say anything before Hydra burst through all of the windows all of a sudden, capturing us.”

Brooklyn nods solemnly. “I wasn’t able to respond until around two and a half weeks ago when I finally remembered it.” She picks her head up and smiles at Bucky, saying, “But I’m so glad I did.” He smiles back and leans in, kissing her. 

“Sounds like the two of you have been through a lot,” Sam says, having only heard Bucky’s half of the story before. “Glad you can help each other out through it, a lot of people struggle to find someone who can help.”

Brooklyn smiles at Sam, nodding.

“Well, we’re still a couple of hours out,” Tony says, “So go ahead everyone, get some rest. I’ll wake everyone up when we get there if anyone falls asleep.”

“Thanks, Tony,” Steve says, and then stands, putting his hand on Bucky’s shoulder. They share a nod, and Steve moves away, the group quickly dispersing to move to different parts of the quinjet.

Brooklyn leans back on Bucky’s shoulder and closes her eyes, a soft smile on her face. Bucky leans his head over on top of hers and closes his eyes too, and within a few minutes, they are both fast asleep, metal hands still intertwined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh omg I can't believe we got this far <3


	15. A Good Day (Epilogue)

Brooklyn is up in the common room still when Bucky wakes up, having stayed up too late with Peter. He finds the two of them sprawled out on the couches, game controllers dangling out of their hands, fast asleep. He smiles and shakes his head, going over to the communal kitchen to see if he can make anything for breakfast for the three of them.

He gets a pot of coffee going and finds some eggs in the fridge, throwing them all in a frying pan to make some scrambled eggs. The smell of coffee wakes Brooklyn up and she trudges into the kitchen, sitting down at the counter and putting her head down on it.

“Morning doll,” Bucky says, pouring some coffee into a mug and placing it in front of Brooklyn. 

“Morning,” she grunts, picking the mug up and drinking half of it in one sip.

“How late did you two stay up?”

She shrugs. “I don't even remember falling asleep. Jarvis must have turned the console off for us.”

“It was three when I turned it off,” Jarvis supplies.

“Thanks, Jarvis. You two manage to get any other trophies?” Bucky asks, finding plates for the eggs.

“A few. Peter found a hidden one that he was ecstatic over; he kept making his lego figure swing back and forth with a grappling hook until it gave us a trophy titled 'Swingin like Spider-Man’.”

“It's good to see the kid getting recognition outside of New York.”

By the time the eggs are done, Peter makes his way into the kitchen, his hair sticking out at all sorts of angles and the remote still stuck to his hand. 

“Hey Aunt B, I could use some help again.” He blearily holds his hand out and shakes it, but the remote won't budge.

Brooklyn smiles and shakes her head, holding out her hand. She helps pull the remote off of his hand as Bucky plates the eggs and sets them down on the table. 

“Thanks!” Peter says once they finally unstick the remote from his hand. He turns over to Bucky and says, “Thanks to you too for making breakfast!”

Bucky rolls his eyes and says, “It was nothing, kid, same as always when you guys do this.”

“Well, I can still say thank you for it,” Peter remarks as he stuffs his face.

“What's the plan for today, then?” Bucky asks, taking a bite of the eggs.

“Well, Aunt May doesn't get back from her business trip until Tuesday, so I've still got some time, I was hoping to get some smash in today.”

Brooklyn finishes off her plate and says, “Well, if we hurry, we can get some in before Tony's expecting you to help him in the lab.”

Peter shovels the rest of his eggs into his mouth and quickly throws the plate into the sink, running back to the TV to turn the Switch on.

“Hey kid!” Brooklyn says through a laugh, holding the remote up that he left. She tosses it towards him when he's looking, and he shoots a web at it, pulling it towards him as he flops onto the couch. “Come on, Buck, I'll help you clean up while he gets the game ready.”

“Bucky, do you want to play too?” Peter calls.

“Next time, I promised Steve I'd help him find a place for that painting he just finished. He's so indecisive when it comes to decorating.” He kisses Brooklyn's cheek and walks out of the kitchen, back over to the elevator.

“Okay, Pete, everything ready?” Brooklyn asks as she dries her hands after finishing the dishes. 

“Yep!” He tosses her a remote as she sits down on the couch next to him, and character selection is already up.

“That was fast,” Peter comments as Brooklyn chooses Pikachu. “You ever think about trying anyone else out?”

“I have, Bucky gave me that course forever ago. The mouse uses lightning and I like him, so that's why I main him.”

“His name is Pikachu,” Peter says as he rolls his eyes, still debating over characters. “I really need to catch you up with Pokemon.”

Brooklyn leans back and nods. “Right, Pikachu.”

“Okay, I'm gonna go with Isabela. Geez, we need to teach you about Animal Crossing too.”

“Next time, let's just get into the fight.”

Peter picks a random map and soon the two are completely immersed, trying to beat the other. Some of the other Avengers filter through the common room as everyone wakes up, but none of them bother Peter and Brooklyn.

“Hey kid, can you come down to the lab in about an hour?” Tony asks when he comes in. “I'm gonna go take a power nap.”

“Sure, Mr. Stark!” Peter calls over his shoulder, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

But that hour never fully passes; the alarms starting to blare about halfway through.

Brooklyn glances at Peter and says, “You have your suit?”

“Yeah, it's on under my clothes still.”

They continue to play the game as Brooklyn says, “Jarvis, tell Bucky to bring my stuff up while I finish beating the kid.”

“You are not beating me!” Peter says, but then Brooklyn knocks him off the edge and he doesn't recover, leaving Brooklyn looking smug.

Bucky and Steve are the first ones to the common room, getting there just as Brooklyn wins the round against Peter.

“Here,” Bucky says, throwing Brooklyn's clothes at her. “Go change before everyone else gets here.”

Brooklyn catches them with her left hand, her ring glinting as it catches the light. “You only did that so you could see my ring.”

“Go. Change.”

Brooklyn sticks her tongue out and stands, moving away from the couch as fog starts to grow in the room.

Steve covers his face with his hand and says, “Are you really gonna do this again?”

“You want me to change so we can go, don't you?” Brooklyn says, now completely obscured by the thick fog. 

The other Avengers start to trickle in and Peter strips his clothes to get to his suit. Brooklyn throws clothes out of the fog at Bucky, the gold band on his metal hand catching the light. 

“And you said I was doing it to show the ring off,” Bucky says, and Brooklyn emerges with her tongue sticking out, running a brush through her hair. 

“Mrs. Barnes, if you could remove the fog so we can get started?” Tony says, but Brooklyn just rolls her eyes and grabs Bucky by the collar, pulling him into the fog and kissing him deeply before letting the fog go.

Life wasn't perfect for the two of them. They still had their ups and downs; their peaceful days and their nightmares. But they weren't alone. They had their friends; their family, and they knew they could count on them. They had each other too, and with that brings the comfort of knowing they will never be Winter Soldiers again. And for them, that's all that matters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to give a big thank you to everyone who's read! I never thought this would get so many notes, being that it's entirely about an oc and doesn't have any other pairings in it. It means so much to me that you guys have read, commented, and given Kudos to this over the last few months. Now that this is over, I'll be starting another fic soon, so you can come follow me on tumblr [here](https://pearlll09.tumblr.com/) to stay updated! Thanks again, I love you all <3


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